Marble, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marble, 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 Marble 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 Marble — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marble — the short answer
Marble, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 135 days between hard freezes, across 230 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~135
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 230 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 Marble's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marble's 135-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marble
Each reading below is measured for Marble itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarble runs about 135 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
MeasuredMarble 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 Marble is in
Marble sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Marble's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gunnison County.
What Grows in Marble
Every plant below cleared Marble's own zone 5a and its 135-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marble?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Short seasons reward decisiveness — quick-maturing varieties late, hardy greens under cover, and next year’s garlic in the ground before it closes.
What's on the federal record near Marble
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marble. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SC011088261CD00Nitrate · 1600 ft
- Gold Pan VeinMining · 2.0 mi
- Virginia, Valley, May PioneerMining · 2.0 mi
- UnknownMining · 2.0 mi
- Unknown ShaftMining · 2.2 mi
- Catalpa MineMining · 2.8 mi
- Skyline MineMining · 2.9 mi
- BrooklynMining · 2.9 mi
- Silver NuggetMining · 3.0 mi
- Genter MineMining · 3.1 mi
- Rapid Creek MineMining · 3.1 mi
- SkylineMining · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marble'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 Marble.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marble
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marble
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marble, Mining runs higher than the national average — 89 sites within ~10 miles of Marble. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Marble
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 Marble average
Your land is one point inside Marble
Everything above resolves to Marble as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 230 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 Marble Average
Marble Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Marble
- ●One soil character for all of Marble
- ●Frost dates read at Marble's scale: May 18 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marble's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marble
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marble, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marble averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marble — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marble average
How we know this about Marble
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 Marble’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 Marble
When does frost risk typically end in Marble?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marble typically lands around May 18, 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 Jun 8.
When is the first frost in Marble?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marble typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 135 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marble?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marble sees about 135 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 16, about 100 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marble?
The federal record around Marble runs heavier than most — 94 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (89), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Marble?
With about 135 frost-free days between hard freezes, Marble 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 163 to 191 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Marble's scale — its 5a band and its 135-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marble'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 Marble’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marble's own scale — its own ~135-day season between 28°F freezes, the 230 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marble's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marble's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 30 and the ~135-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marble, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marble's boundary and the 230 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~135-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marble's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marble's 230 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gunnison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gunnison 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 Gunnison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marble's 230 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marble you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 230 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Marble-wide figureread your own land →