Lewis, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lewis, 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 Lewis 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 Lewis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lewis — the short answer
Lewis, Colorado: USDA zone 6b, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Lewis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lewis's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lewis
Each reading below is measured for Lewis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLewis runs about 174 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
MeasuredLewis sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Lewis is in
Lewis sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Lewis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montezuma County.
What Grows in Lewis
Every plant below cleared Lewis's own zone 6b and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lewis?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
What's on the federal record near Lewis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lewis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- First National Bank Of CortezUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Coxs Corner StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Mcphee MarinaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Arriola StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- MONTEZUMA WCPFAS · 4.4 mi
- Southwest Colorado Bean ProducersUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- R Clare GerlachUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- NB03801719CCB1Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- Montezuma County Road DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- Skyline Food & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- NORTHWEST PIPELINE PLEASANT VIEW COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- Dolores Field StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lewis'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 Lewis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lewis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lewis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lewis, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Lewis. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lewis
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 Lewis average
Your land is one point inside Lewis
Everything above resolves to Lewis as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Lewis Average
Lewis Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lewis
- ●One soil character for all of Lewis
- ●Frost dates read at Lewis's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lewis's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lewis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lewis, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lewis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lewis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lewis average
How we know this about Lewis
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 Lewis’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 Lewis
When does frost risk typically end in Lewis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lewis typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Lewis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lewis typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lewis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lewis sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 4, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lewis?
The federal record around Lewis shows 35 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles 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 I protect my plants from frost in Lewis?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lewis's scale — its 6b band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lewis'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 Lewis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lewis's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,991 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lewis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lewis's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 18 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lewis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lewis's boundary and the 1,991 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lewis's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lewis's 1,991 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montezuma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montezuma 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 Montezuma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lewis's 1,991 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lewis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,991 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Lewis-wide figureread your own land →
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