Kiowa, 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 Kiowa, 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 Kiowa 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 Kiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kiowa — the short answer
Kiowa, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 159 days between hard freezes, across 547 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~159
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 547 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 Kiowa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kiowa's 159-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kiowa
Each reading below is measured for Kiowa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKiowa runs about 159 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
MeasuredKiowa 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 Kiowa is in
Kiowa sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kiowa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Elbert County.
What Grows in Kiowa
Every plant below cleared Kiowa's own zone 5b and its 159-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kiowa?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Kiowa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kiowa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cj Steckel Trust No 1Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Kiowa VorUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CDOT KiowaUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Kiowa School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Coyote Market IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- AT&T Kiowa RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- High Plains Food StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BURNCOToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- SC00806334BCA DAWMAS28Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- SC00806333CBD DENMAS06Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- LAYNE INLINER LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- SC00806402DAA DAWMAS29Nitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kiowa'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 Kiowa.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Kiowa
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kiowa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kiowa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kiowa, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Kiowa. 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 Kiowa
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 Kiowa average
Your land is one point inside Kiowa
Everything above resolves to Kiowa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 547 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 Kiowa Average
Kiowa Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kiowa
- ●One soil character for all of Kiowa
- ●Frost dates read at Kiowa's scale: May 4 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kiowa's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kiowa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kiowa, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kiowa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kiowa average
How we know this about Kiowa
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 Kiowa’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 Kiowa
When does frost risk typically end in Kiowa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kiowa typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Kiowa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kiowa typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 159 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kiowa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kiowa sees about 159 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Sep 26, about 124 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kiowa?
The federal record around Kiowa is a meaningful one — 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (20), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Kiowa?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kiowa's scale — its 5b band and its 159-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kiowa'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 Kiowa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kiowa's own scale — its own ~159-day season between 28°F freezes, the 547 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kiowa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kiowa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 10 and the ~159-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kiowa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kiowa's boundary and the 547 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~159-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kiowa's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kiowa's 547 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Elbert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Elbert 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 Elbert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kiowa's 547 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kiowa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 547 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Kiowa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoKiowa sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides