Green Mountain Falls, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Green Mountain Falls, 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 Green Mountain Falls 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 Green Mountain Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Green Mountain Falls — the short answer
Green Mountain Falls, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 742 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 742 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 5a is Green Mountain Falls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Green Mountain Falls's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Green Mountain Falls
Each reading below is measured for Green Mountain Falls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreen Mountain Falls runs about 139 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
MeasuredGreen Mountain Falls sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Green Mountain Falls is in
Green Mountain Falls sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Green Mountain Falls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Paso County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Green Mountain Falls
Every plant below cleared Green Mountain Falls's own zone 5a and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Green Mountain Falls?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Green Mountain Falls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Green Mountain Falls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- The MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Ute Pass Water Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Pikes Peak Highway GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Green Mountain Falls DistrictMining · 1.6 mi
- Manitou Springs School Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Alta #6106Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- QUALITY FINISHES DENT REMOVAL INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Ute Pass RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Bust General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Iron King MineMining · 2.7 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3805Brownfields · 3.0 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #9561Brownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Green Mountain Falls'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 Green Mountain Falls.
Total Sites
180
within ~10 miles of Green Mountain Falls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Green Mountain Falls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Green Mountain Falls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Green Mountain Falls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Green Mountain Falls — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Green Mountain Falls
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 Green Mountain Falls average
Your land is one point inside Green Mountain Falls
Everything above resolves to Green Mountain Falls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 742 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 Green Mountain Falls Average
Green Mountain Falls Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Green Mountain Falls
- ●One soil character for all of Green Mountain Falls
- ●Frost dates read at Green Mountain Falls's scale: May 14 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Green Mountain Falls's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Green Mountain Falls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Green Mountain Falls, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Green Mountain Falls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Green Mountain Falls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Green Mountain Falls average
How we know this about Green Mountain Falls
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 Green Mountain Falls’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 Green Mountain Falls
When does frost risk typically end in Green Mountain Falls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Green Mountain Falls typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Green Mountain Falls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Green Mountain Falls typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Green Mountain Falls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Green Mountain Falls sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 16, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Green Mountain Falls?
The federal record around Green Mountain Falls is a meaningful one — 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Green Mountain Falls?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, Green Mountain Falls 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 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Green Mountain Falls's scale — its 5a band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Green Mountain Falls'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 Green Mountain Falls’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Green Mountain Falls's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 742 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Green Mountain Falls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Green Mountain Falls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 30 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Green Mountain Falls, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Green Mountain Falls's boundary and the 742 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Green Mountain Falls sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Green Mountain Falls's 742 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Green Mountain Falls's 742 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Green Mountain Falls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 742 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Green Mountain Falls-wide figureread your own land →