Leadville, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include pumpkin, blackberry, lavender, and zucchini, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leadville, 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 Leadville 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 Leadville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leadville — the short answer
Leadville, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 84 days between hard freezes, across 751 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~84
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 751 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 Leadville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leadville's 84-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leadville
Each reading below is measured for Leadville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeadville runs about 84 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
MeasuredLeadville 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 Leadville is in
Leadville sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Leadville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Leadville
Every plant below cleared Leadville's own zone 5a and its 84-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leadville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 5 — 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 Leadville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leadville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pitts Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Sherman Tunnel (mine Closed)Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Kum & Go #915Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Parkville Water DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- US West CommunicationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lake County Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Leadville Junior High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CST Metro LLC DBA Corner Store #682Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lewis Petroleum Products CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Lake County ConcreteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Home Extension MineMining · 1400 ft
- Leadville 260363Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leadville'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 Leadville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leadville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leadville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leadville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leadville — Mining (280 sites) and Superfund (5 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.
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 Leadville
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 Leadville average
Your land is one point inside Leadville
Everything above resolves to Leadville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 751 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 Leadville Average
Leadville Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Leadville
- ●One soil character for all of Leadville
- ●Frost dates read at Leadville's scale: Jun 13 to Sep 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leadville's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leadville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leadville, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leadville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leadville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leadville average
How we know this about Leadville
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 Leadville’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 Leadville
When does frost risk typically end in Leadville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leadville typically lands around Jun 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 Jul 4.
When is the first frost in Leadville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leadville typically arrives around Sep 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Aug 22, so the watching starts about Aug 6 — about 84 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leadville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leadville sees about 84 frost-free days — roughly Jun 13 through Sep 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jul 4 to Aug 22, about 49 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leadville?
The federal record around Leadville runs heavier than most — 349 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (280), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 gardeners stretch the season in Leadville?
With about 84 frost-free days between hard freezes, Leadville 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 112 to 140 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Leadville's scale — its 5a band and its 84-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leadville'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 Leadville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leadville's own scale — its own ~84-day season between 28°F freezes, the 751 acres it covers and 349 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leadville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leadville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 13 and Sep 5 and the ~84-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 349 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leadville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leadville's boundary and the 751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~84-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leadville's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leadville's 751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leadville's 751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leadville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 751 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 Leadville-wide figureread your own land →