Hayden, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hayden, 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 Hayden 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 Hayden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hayden — the short answer
Hayden, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- 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
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Hayden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hayden's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hayden
Each reading below is measured for Hayden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHayden runs about 151 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
MeasuredHayden 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 Hayden is in
Hayden sits in the Wyoming Basin — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Hayden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Routt County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hayden
Every plant below cleared Hayden's own zone 5a and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hayden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (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. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Hayden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hayden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAYDEN AUTO BODY INCBrownfields · 400 ft
- Wagner Equipment CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- WAGNER EQUIPMENT CO.Brownfields · 1000 ft
- Kum & Go #4904Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Bear River Valley Co-OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CDOT HaydenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Hayden VorUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hayden RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hayden RcagUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Yampa Mining CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Hayden SubstationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Hayden SnocatUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hayden'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 Hayden.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hayden, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Hayden. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hayden
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 Hayden average
Your land is one point inside Hayden
Everything above resolves to Hayden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Hayden Average
Hayden Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Hayden
- ●One soil character for all of Hayden
- ●Frost dates read at Hayden's scale: May 6 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hayden's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hayden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hayden, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hayden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hayden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hayden average
How we know this about Hayden
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 Hayden’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 Hayden
When does frost risk typically end in Hayden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hayden typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Hayden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hayden 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 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hayden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hayden sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 20, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hayden?
The federal record around Hayden shows 60 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hayden?
From about Sep 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hayden's scale — its 5a band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hayden'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 Hayden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hayden's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,204 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hayden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hayden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 4 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hayden, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hayden's boundary and the 2,204 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hayden sits in the Wyoming Basin — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hayden's 2,204 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Routt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Routt 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 Routt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hayden's 2,204 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hayden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,204 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hayden-wide figureread your own land →