Kittredge, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kittredge, 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 Kittredge 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 Kittredge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kittredge — the short answer
Kittredge, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 151 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~151
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Kittredge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kittredge's 151-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kittredge
Each reading below is measured for Kittredge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKittredge runs about 151 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
MeasuredKittredge 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 Kittredge is in
Kittredge sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Kittredge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Kittredge
Every plant below cleared Kittredge's own zone 5b and its 151-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kittredge?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Kittredge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kittredge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kittredge General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- KITTREDGE AUTO REBUILDERSBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Silver Glen Ranch PegmatiteMining · 0.5 mi
- EVERGREEN MDPFAS · 0.6 mi
- CDOT KittredgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FIRESTONSE TIRE SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- PSCO - EVERGREEN SVR CTRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SUPER SEER CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- AllroosUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- 7-Eleven #18706Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Stinker Store #341Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- F. M. D. MineMining · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kittredge'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 Kittredge.
Total Sites
703
within ~10 miles of Kittredge
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kittredge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kittredge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kittredge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kittredge — Mining (68 sites) and Nitrate (296 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 Kittredge
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 Kittredge average
Your land is one point inside Kittredge
Everything above resolves to Kittredge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Kittredge Average
Kittredge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Kittredge
- ●One soil character for all of Kittredge
- ●Frost dates read at Kittredge's scale: May 7 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kittredge's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kittredge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kittredge, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kittredge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kittredge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kittredge average
How we know this about Kittredge
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 Kittredge’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 Kittredge
When does frost risk typically end in Kittredge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kittredge 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 Kittredge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kittredge typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 151 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kittredge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kittredge sees about 151 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 21, about 116 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kittredge?
The federal record around Kittredge runs heavier than most — 703 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (296), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kittredge?
From about Sep 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kittredge's scale — its 5b band and its 151-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kittredge'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 Kittredge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Kittredge's own scale — its own ~151-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,206 acres it covers and 703 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kittredge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kittredge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 5 and the ~151-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 703 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kittredge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kittredge's boundary and the 1,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~151-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kittredge's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kittredge's 1,206 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 Kittredge's 1,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kittredge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Kittredge-wide figureread your own land →
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