Goldfield, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goldfield, 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 Goldfield 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 Goldfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goldfield — the short answer
Goldfield, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 90 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 90 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 Goldfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goldfield's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goldfield
Each reading below is measured for Goldfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoldfield runs about 127 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGoldfield 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 Goldfield is in
Goldfield sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Goldfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Teller County.
What Grows in Goldfield
Every plant below cleared Goldfield's own zone 5b and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goldfield?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Goldfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goldfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cc & V Gold MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Hull CityMining · 0.8 mi
- Cripple Creek Victor Gold MineUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Teller County Road District #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Jet ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- City Of VictorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Cripple Creek DistrictMining · 1.7 mi
- CRIPPLE CREEK & VICTOR GOLD MINING COBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- CRIPPLE CREEK & VICTOR GOLD MINING COToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- SCHMUESER & ASSOCIATES INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Wildwood StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CRIPPLE CREEK & VICTOR GOLD MINING COSuperfund · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goldfield'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 Goldfield.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Goldfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goldfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goldfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goldfield, Mining runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Goldfield. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Goldfield
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 Goldfield average
Your land is one point inside Goldfield
Everything above resolves to Goldfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 90 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 Goldfield Average
Goldfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Goldfield
- ●One soil character for all of Goldfield
- ●Frost dates read at Goldfield's scale: May 24 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goldfield's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goldfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goldfield, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goldfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goldfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goldfield average
How we know this about Goldfield
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 Goldfield’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 Goldfield
When does frost risk typically end in Goldfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goldfield typically lands around May 24, 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 Jun 14.
When is the first frost in Goldfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goldfield typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goldfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goldfield sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 24 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 14 to Sep 14, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goldfield?
The federal record around Goldfield is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Goldfield?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Goldfield rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 24 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Goldfield's scale — its 5b band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goldfield'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 Goldfield’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goldfield's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 90 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goldfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goldfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 24 and Sep 28 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goldfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goldfield's boundary and the 90 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goldfield's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goldfield's 90 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Teller County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Teller 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 Teller County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goldfield's 90 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goldfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 90 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Goldfield-wide figureread your own land →