Indian Hills, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Indian Hills, 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 Indian Hills 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 Indian Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Indian Hills — the short answer
Indian Hills, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Indian Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Indian Hills's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Indian Hills
Each reading below is measured for Indian Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIndian Hills runs about 154 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
MeasuredIndian Hills 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 Indian Hills is in
Indian Hills sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Indian Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Indian Hills
Every plant below cleared Indian Hills's own zone 5b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Indian Hills?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Indian Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Indian Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XLN - 15Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- Parmalee GulchNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Indian Hills ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Indian Hills Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Indian Hills ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SC00507006CDDCNitrate · 1.4 mi
- Tall Timber GroupMining · 1.7 mi
- XLN - 25Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Little Log StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- UnknownMining · 2.4 mi
- Idledale DistrictMining · 2.4 mi
- Wright LeaseMining · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Indian Hills'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 Indian Hills.
Total Sites
967
within ~10 miles of Indian Hills
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Indian Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Indian Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Indian Hills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 304 sites within ~10 miles of Indian Hills. 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 Indian Hills
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 Indian Hills average
Your land is one point inside Indian Hills
Everything above resolves to Indian Hills as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Indian Hills Average
Indian Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Indian Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Indian Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Indian Hills's scale: May 7 to Oct 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Indian Hills's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Indian Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Indian Hills, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Indian Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Indian Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Indian Hills average
How we know this about Indian Hills
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 Indian Hills’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 Indian Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Indian Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Indian Hills typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Indian Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Indian Hills typically arrives around Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 24, so the watching starts about Sep 8 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Indian Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Indian Hills sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 24, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Indian Hills?
The federal record around Indian Hills runs heavier than most — 967 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (371), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Indian Hills?
From about Sep 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Indian Hills's scale — its 5b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Indian Hills'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 Indian Hills’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Indian Hills's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,472 acres it covers and 967 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Indian Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Indian Hills's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 8 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 967 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Indian Hills, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Indian Hills's boundary and the 3,472 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Indian Hills's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Indian Hills's 3,472 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 Indian Hills's 3,472 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Indian Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,472 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Indian Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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