Las Animas, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Las Animas, 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 Las Animas 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 Las Animas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Las Animas — the short answer
Las Animas, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 192 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~192
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 6a is Las Animas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Las Animas's 192-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Las Animas
Each reading below is measured for Las Animas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLas Animas runs about 192 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
MeasuredLas Animas sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Las Animas is in
Las Animas sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Las Animas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bent County.
What Grows in Las Animas
Every plant below cleared Las Animas's own zone 6a and its 192-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Las Animas?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — 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 Las Animas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Las Animas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- King Solomon Lodge #36Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- UnknownUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Alta #6121Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BENT COUNTY HEALTHCARE CENTERBrownfields · 1000 ft
- Richard L HarrisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Ellis StandardUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- The Fort Lyon Canal CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Las Animas 66 ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Faus ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bent County PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Las Animas StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Thaxtons MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Las Animas'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 Las Animas.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Las Animas
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Las Animas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Las Animas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Las Animas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Las Animas — CAFO (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Las Animas
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 Las Animas average
Your land is one point inside Las Animas
Everything above resolves to Las Animas 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 city 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 Las Animas Average
Las Animas Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Las Animas
- ●One soil character for all of Las Animas
- ●Frost dates read at Las Animas's scale: Apr 13 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Las Animas's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Las Animas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Las Animas, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Las Animas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Las Animas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Las Animas average
How we know this about Las Animas
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Las Animas’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Las Animas
When does frost risk typically end in Las Animas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Las Animas typically lands around Apr 13, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Las Animas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Las Animas typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 192 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Las Animas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Las Animas sees about 192 frost-free days — roughly Apr 13 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 4 to Oct 8, about 157 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Las Animas?
The federal record around Las Animas is a meaningful one — 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Las Animas?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Las Animas's scale — its 6a band and its 192-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Las Animas'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 Las Animas’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Las Animas's own scale — its own ~192-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,041 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Las Animas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Las Animas's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 13 and Oct 22 and the ~192-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Las Animas, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Las Animas's boundary and the 1,041 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~192-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Las Animas's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Las Animas's 1,041 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bent County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bent 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 Bent County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Las Animas's 1,041 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Las Animas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,041 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Las Animas-wide figureread your own land →