Johnson Village, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Johnson Village, 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 Johnson Village 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 Johnson Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Johnson Village — the short answer
Johnson Village, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 191 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- 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
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 191 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 Johnson Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Johnson Village's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Johnson Village
Each reading below is measured for Johnson Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJohnson Village runs about 136 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
MeasuredJohnson Village 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 Johnson Village is in
Johnson Village sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Johnson Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chaffee County.
What Grows in Johnson Village
Every plant below cleared Johnson Village's own zone 5b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Johnson Village?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (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. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Johnson Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Johnson Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gunsmoke Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- Johnson Village TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Valley View Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Eveready Freight Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- COLO DEPT OF CORRECTIONS - BVCC/MC & CCABrownfields · 0.8 mi
- CDOT Johnson VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Speedy MineMining · 1.5 mi
- ACA Products IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- FEDERAL EXPRESS - ZBNVBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- Loaf N Jug #9Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Valley OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Yellow BirdMining · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Johnson Village'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 Johnson Village.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Johnson Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Johnson Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Johnson Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Johnson Village — Mining (14 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Johnson Village
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 Johnson Village average
Your land is one point inside Johnson Village
Everything above resolves to Johnson Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 191 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 Johnson Village Average
Johnson Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Johnson Village
- ●One soil character for all of Johnson Village
- ●Frost dates read at Johnson Village's scale: May 17 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Johnson Village's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Johnson Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Johnson Village, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Johnson Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Johnson Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Johnson Village average
How we know this about Johnson Village
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 Johnson Village’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 Johnson Village
When does frost risk typically end in Johnson Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson Village typically lands around May 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Johnson Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Johnson Village 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 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Johnson Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Johnson Village sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 16, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Johnson Village?
The federal record around Johnson Village is a meaningful one — 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Johnson Village?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Johnson Village 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 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Johnson Village's scale — its 5b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Johnson Village'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 Johnson Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Johnson Village's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 191 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Johnson Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Johnson Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Sep 30 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Johnson Village, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Johnson Village's boundary and the 191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Johnson Village's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Johnson Village's 191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chaffee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chaffee 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 Chaffee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Johnson Village's 191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Johnson Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Johnson Village-wide figureread your own land →