Gypsum, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Gypsum, 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 Gypsum 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 Gypsum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gypsum — the short answer
Gypsum, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Gypsum's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gypsum's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gypsum
Each reading below is measured for Gypsum itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGypsum runs about 149 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
MeasuredGypsum 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 Gypsum is in
Gypsum sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Gypsum's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in Gypsum
Every plant below cleared Gypsum's own zone 5b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gypsum?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Gypsum
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gypsum. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00508518DBANitrate · 2000 ft
- SC00508508BDDNitrate · 1.0 mi
- Gerard BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SC00508519BABNitrate · 1.1 mi
- Eagle County Joint Maint FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SC00508520DCBNitrate · 1.6 mi
- SC00508505DDBNitrate · 1.7 mi
- RED CANYON ASSOCIATES LLCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- David & Patsy ShankelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- City Of GypsumUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Stop N Save #19Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Kum & Go #935Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gypsum'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 Gypsum.
Total Sites
133
within ~10 miles of Gypsum
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gypsum
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gypsum
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gypsum, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Gypsum. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Gypsum
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 Gypsum average
Your land is one point inside Gypsum
Everything above resolves to Gypsum as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Gypsum Average
Gypsum Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Gypsum
- ●One soil character for all of Gypsum
- ●Frost dates read at Gypsum's scale: May 8 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gypsum's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gypsum
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gypsum, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gypsum averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gypsum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gypsum average
How we know this about Gypsum
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 Gypsum’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 Gypsum
When does frost risk typically end in Gypsum?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gypsum typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Gypsum?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gypsum typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gypsum?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gypsum sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 20, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gypsum?
The federal record around Gypsum is a meaningful one — 133 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (68), the nearest Nitrate 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 Gypsum?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Gypsum 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 8 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Gypsum's scale — its 5b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gypsum'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 Gypsum’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gypsum's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,658 acres it covers and 133 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gypsum's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gypsum's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 4 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 133 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gypsum, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gypsum's boundary and the 5,658 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gypsum's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gypsum's 5,658 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eagle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eagle 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 Eagle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gypsum's 5,658 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gypsum you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,658 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Gypsum-wide figureread your own land →