Keystone, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keystone, 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 Keystone 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 Keystone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Keystone — the short answer
Keystone, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 89 days between hard freezes, across 26K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~89
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 26K 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 Keystone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keystone's 89-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keystone
Each reading below is measured for Keystone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeystone runs about 89 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
MeasuredKeystone 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 Keystone is in
Keystone sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Keystone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Summit County.
What Grows in Keystone
Every plant below cleared Keystone's own zone 5a and its 89-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keystone?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Keystone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keystone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNAKE RIVER WDPFAS · 0 ft
- Copenhagen, Ida BelleMining · 1.4 mi
- Ida Belle MineMining · 1.5 mi
- RainbowMining · 1.5 mi
- EricksonMining · 1.6 mi
- Erickson MineMining · 1.6 mi
- California Bell MineMining · 1.8 mi
- Hunkidori MineMining · 2.1 mi
- PilotMining · 2.1 mi
- Don Pedro, HunkidoriMining · 2.1 mi
- Jones Gulch ClaimsMining · 2.2 mi
- Summit House Water Plant- Fire SuppressionUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keystone'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 Keystone.
Total Sites
397
within ~10 miles of Keystone
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keystone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keystone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keystone, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Keystone — Mining (230 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Keystone
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 Keystone average
Your land is one point inside Keystone
Everything above resolves to Keystone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 26K 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 Keystone Average
Keystone Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Keystone
- ●One soil character for all of Keystone
- ●Frost dates read at Keystone's scale: Jun 11 to Sep 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keystone's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keystone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keystone, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keystone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keystone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keystone average
How we know this about Keystone
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 Keystone’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 Keystone
When does frost risk typically end in Keystone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keystone typically lands around Jun 11, 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 Jul 2.
When is the first frost in Keystone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keystone typically arrives around Sep 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 25, so the watching starts about Aug 9 — about 89 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keystone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keystone sees about 89 frost-free days — roughly Jun 11 through Sep 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 2 to Aug 25, about 54 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keystone?
The federal record around Keystone runs heavier than most — 397 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (230), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 gardeners stretch the season in Keystone?
With about 89 frost-free days between hard freezes, Keystone 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 117 to 145 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Keystone's scale — its 5a band and its 89-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keystone'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 Keystone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keystone's own scale — its own ~89-day season between 28°F freezes, the 26,497 acres it covers and 397 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keystone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keystone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 11 and Sep 8 and the ~89-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 397 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keystone, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keystone's boundary and the 26,497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~89-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keystone's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keystone's 26,497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Summit County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Summit 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 Summit County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keystone's 26,497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keystone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 26,497 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Keystone-wide figureread your own land →