Lochbuie, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lochbuie, 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 Lochbuie 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 Lochbuie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lochbuie — the short answer
Lochbuie, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- 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 Lochbuie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lochbuie's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lochbuie
Each reading below is measured for Lochbuie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLochbuie runs about 177 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
MeasuredLochbuie 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 Lochbuie is in
Lochbuie sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lochbuie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Weld County.
What Grows in Lochbuie
Every plant below cleared Lochbuie's own zone 5b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lochbuie?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — 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 Lochbuie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lochbuie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB00106636DCA1Nitrate · 2500 ft
- Tagawa Greenhouses IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SC00106601BAANitrate · 0.7 mi
- SB00106530CCCNitrate · 0.7 mi
- Lafarge West IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SB00106530DCB1 USGS 400101104422101Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8274Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- TRANSWEST TRUCK TRAILER RVBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- KING SOOPERS 136Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- BRIGHTON GLYPHOSATESuperfund · 1.6 mi
- Brighton RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- STAPLES INC - BRIGHTONBrownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lochbuie'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 Lochbuie.
Total Sites
380
within ~10 miles of Lochbuie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lochbuie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lochbuie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lochbuie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lochbuie — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lochbuie
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 Lochbuie average
Your land is one point inside Lochbuie
Everything above resolves to Lochbuie 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 Lochbuie Average
Lochbuie Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Lochbuie
- ●One soil character for all of Lochbuie
- ●Frost dates read at Lochbuie's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lochbuie's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lochbuie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lochbuie, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lochbuie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lochbuie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lochbuie average
How we know this about Lochbuie
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 Lochbuie’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 Lochbuie
When does frost risk typically end in Lochbuie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lochbuie typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lochbuie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lochbuie typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lochbuie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lochbuie sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 1, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lochbuie?
The federal record around Lochbuie is a meaningful one — 380 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (149), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Lochbuie?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lochbuie's scale — its 5b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lochbuie'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 Lochbuie’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lochbuie's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,358 acres it covers and 380 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lochbuie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lochbuie's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 15 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 380 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lochbuie, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lochbuie's boundary and the 2,358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lochbuie's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lochbuie's 2,358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Weld County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Weld 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 Weld County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lochbuie's 2,358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lochbuie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Lochbuie-wide figureread your own land →