Idledale, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Idledale, 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 Idledale 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 Idledale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Idledale — the short answer
Idledale, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 155 days between hard freezes, across 177 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~155
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 177 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 Idledale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Idledale's 155-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Idledale
Each reading below is measured for Idledale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIdledale runs about 155 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
MeasuredIdledale 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 Idledale is in
Idledale sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Idledale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Idledale
Every plant below cleared Idledale's own zone 5b and its 155-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Idledale?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Idledale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Idledale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC00407032AABCNitrate · 1000 ft
- Lee VeldhouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Bruce HungateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Idledale DistrictMining · 2000 ft
- Wright LeaseMining · 2000 ft
- UnknownMining · 1.3 mi
- Malachite MineMining · 1.3 mi
- Tall Timber GroupMining · 2.2 mi
- Indian Hills ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SC00507006CDDCNitrate · 2.5 mi
- F. M. D. MineMining · 2.5 mi
- Morrison Mountain ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Idledale'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 Idledale.
Total Sites
1,211
within ~10 miles of Idledale
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Idledale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Idledale
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Idledale
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 Idledale average
Your land is one point inside Idledale
Everything above resolves to Idledale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 177 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 Idledale Average
Idledale Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Idledale
- ●One soil character for all of Idledale
- ●Frost dates read at Idledale's scale: May 5 to Oct 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Idledale's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Idledale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Idledale, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Idledale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Idledale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Idledale average
How we know this about Idledale
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 Idledale’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 Idledale
When does frost risk typically end in Idledale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Idledale typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Idledale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Idledale typically arrives around Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 23, so the watching starts about Sep 7 — about 155 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Idledale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Idledale sees about 155 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 23, about 120 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Idledale?
The federal record around Idledale runs heavier than most — 1,211 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (495), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Idledale?
From about Sep 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Idledale's scale — its 5b band and its 155-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Idledale'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 Idledale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Idledale's own scale — its own ~155-day season between 28°F freezes, the 177 acres it covers and 1,211 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Idledale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Idledale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 7 and the ~155-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Idledale, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Idledale's boundary and the 177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~155-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Idledale's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Idledale's 177 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Idledale's 177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Idledale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Idledale-wide figureread your own land →
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