La Jara, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, cilantro, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in La Jara, 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 La Jara 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 La Jara — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Jara — the short answer
La Jara, Colorado: USDA zone 4b, about 125 days between hard freezes, across 261 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 4b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~125
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 261 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 4b is La Jara's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Jara's 125-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Jara
Each reading below is measured for La Jara itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Jara runs about 125 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
MeasuredLa Jara sits in USDA hardiness zone 4b.
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 La Jara is in
La Jara sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at La Jara's own centroid rather than borrowed from Conejos County.
What Grows in La Jara
Every plant below cleared La Jara's own zone 4b and its 125-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Jara?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near La Jara
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Jara. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- La Jara Fire StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- Navajo StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Dell F DuranUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Alta Convenience #5320Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- La Jara Town HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- La Jara Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7022Brownfields · 1100 ft
- Monte CornumUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SAN LUIS VALLEY HEALTH CONEJOS COUNTY HOSPITALBrownfields · 1300 ft
- North Conejos School District 1jUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- La Jara StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RIO GRANDE INNBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Jara'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 La Jara.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Jara
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Jara
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Jara, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of La Jara. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 La Jara
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 La Jara average
Your land is one point inside La Jara
Everything above resolves to La Jara as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 261 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 La Jara Average
La Jara Average
- ●USDA Zones 4b, averaged across La Jara
- ●One soil character for all of La Jara
- ●Frost dates read at La Jara's scale: May 22 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Jara's 4b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Jara
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Jara, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Jara averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Jara — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Jara average
How we know this about La Jara
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 La Jara’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 La Jara
When does frost risk typically end in La Jara?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Jara typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in La Jara?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Jara typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 125 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Jara?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Jara sees about 125 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 10, about 90 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Jara?
The federal record around La Jara shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do gardeners stretch the season in La Jara?
With about 125 frost-free days between hard freezes, La Jara 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 153 to 181 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at La Jara's scale — its 4b band and its 125-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Jara'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 La Jara’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Jara's own scale — its own ~125-day season between 28°F freezes, the 261 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Jara's own USDA hardiness band, zones 4bUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Jara's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Sep 24 and the ~125-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Jara, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Jara's boundary and the 261 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 4b and a ~125-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Jara's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Jara's 261 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Conejos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Conejos 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 Conejos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Jara's 261 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Jara you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 261 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 La Jara-wide figureread your own land →
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