Gold Hill, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gold Hill, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Gold Hill lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,086 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Gold Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gold Hill — the short answer
Gold Hill, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 150 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~150
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 5b is Gold Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gold Hill's 150-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gold Hill
Each reading below is measured for Gold Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGold Hill runs about 150 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGold Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
The zone sets which perennials, shrubs, and fruit trees live through an average winter here — a plant rated for a colder zone is a safe bet, one rated warmer needs winter protection or gets treated as an annual.
Match perennials and fruit to the zone before you buy, so nothing you plant is a gamble against the cold.
USDA PHZM 2023
The kind of country Gold Hill is in
Gold Hill sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Gold Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boulder County.
What Grows in Gold Hill
Every plant below cleared Gold Hill's own zone 5b and its 150-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gold Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Gold Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gold Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Copper King Nickel MineMining · 1700 ft
- Copper King MineMining · 1700 ft
- SB00107212CBBB SITE C22Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- SB00107213BCBC SITE C06Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Fairday MineMining · 1.1 mi
- Goldsmith MaidMining · 1.2 mi
- VictoriaMining · 1.4 mi
- ScotiaMining · 1.5 mi
- Gray CopperMining · 1.6 mi
- Silver LodeMining · 1.6 mi
- Summit ShaftMining · 1.7 mi
- Henry No. 1 & No. 2Mining · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gold Hill's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Gold Hill.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gold Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gold Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gold Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gold Hill — Mining (108 sites) and Superfund (11 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gold Hill
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,086 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gold Hill average
Your land is one point inside Gold Hill
Everything above resolves to Gold Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. Your parcel is one point inside that footprint. Slope, tree cover, a low spot that pools cold air, and what is in the soil are all resolved at the address, and none of them are visible at town scale. That is the honest boundary of this page, and the reason the next step is a reading of your own ground rather than a better local average.
Your Lot vs the Gold Hill Average
Gold Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Gold Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Gold Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Gold Hill's scale: May 9 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gold Hill's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gold Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gold Hill, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gold Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gold Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gold Hill average
How we know this about Gold Hill
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gold Hill’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Gold Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Gold Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gold Hill typically lands around May 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — earlier than the light-frost dates most charts quote. That marks the hard freeze, not the last light frost — lighter frosts keep biting past it, which is why tender transplants here wait until about May 30.
When is the first frost in Gold Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gold Hill typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 150 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gold Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gold Hill sees about 150 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 22, about 115 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gold Hill?
The federal record around Gold Hill runs heavier than most — 482 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), the nearest Mining record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gold Hill?
From about Sep 6 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gold Hill's scale — its 5b band and its 150-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gold Hill's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Gold Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gold Hill's own scale — its own ~150-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,329 acres it covers and 482 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gold Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gold Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 6 and the ~150-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 482 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gold Hill, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gold Hill's boundary and the 1,329 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~150-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gold Hill's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gold Hill's 1,329 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boulder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boulder County
- The growing challenges every Colorado grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Colorado
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Boulder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gold Hill's 1,329 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gold Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,329 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Gold Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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