Limon, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Limon, 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 Limon 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 Limon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Limon — the short answer
Limon, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~154
- 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 5b is Limon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Limon's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Limon
Each reading below is measured for Limon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLimon runs about 154 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
MeasuredLimon 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 Limon is in
Limon sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Limon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lincoln County.
What Grows in Limon
Every plant below cleared Limon's own zone 5b and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Limon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — 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 Limon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Limon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLORADO DEPT OF TRANS - LIMONBrownfields · 600 ft
- CDOT LimonUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Loaf N Jug #64Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Limon Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Gottschalk Oil IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Ross Chevrolet Buick Pontiac IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- John & Floyd's RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CSP - Limon #49113Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Limon Rs #203Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Stones Super ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- R D Tire & OilUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Texaco Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Limon'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 Limon.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Limon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Limon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 33 sites within ~10 miles of Limon. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Limon
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 Limon average
Your land is one point inside Limon
Everything above resolves to Limon 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 Limon Average
Limon Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Limon
- ●One soil character for all of Limon
- ●Frost dates read at Limon's scale: May 5 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Limon's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Limon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Limon, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Limon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Limon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Limon average
How we know this about Limon
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 Limon’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 Limon
When does frost risk typically end in Limon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Limon typically lands around May 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Limon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Limon typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Limon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Limon sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 5 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 26 to Sep 22, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Limon?
The federal record around Limon shows 40 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Limon?
From about Sep 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Limon's scale — its 5b band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Limon'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 Limon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Limon's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,024 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Limon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Limon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 5 and Oct 6 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Limon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Limon's boundary and the 2,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Limon's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Limon's 2,024 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lincoln County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lincoln 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 Lincoln County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Limon's 2,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Limon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,024 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Limon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoLimon sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.