Marvel, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marvel, 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 Marvel 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 Marvel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marvel — the short answer
Marvel, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 85 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 85 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 6a is Marvel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marvel's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marvel
Each reading below is measured for Marvel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMarvel runs about 171 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
MeasuredMarvel sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Marvel is in
Marvel sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Marvel's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: La Plata County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Marvel
Every plant below cleared Marvel's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marvel?
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 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Marvel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marvel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NB03301214BBANitrate · 450 ft
- District I Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Fort Lewis Mesa SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- NB03301211CCCNitrate · 750 ft
- NB03301210DDD2Nitrate · 800 ft
- NB03301208DCDNitrate · 2.4 mi
- Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NB03401235CAD USGS 370845108071300Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- Mesa One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NB03301220ADBNitrate · 2.6 mi
- TBR ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NB03401131BBANitrate · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marvel'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 Marvel.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Marvel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marvel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marvel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marvel, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Marvel. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Marvel
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 Marvel average
Your land is one point inside Marvel
Everything above resolves to Marvel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 85 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 Marvel Average
Marvel Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Marvel
- ●One soil character for all of Marvel
- ●Frost dates read at Marvel's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marvel's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marvel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marvel, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marvel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marvel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marvel average
How we know this about Marvel
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 Marvel’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 Marvel
When does frost risk typically end in Marvel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marvel typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Marvel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marvel typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marvel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marvel sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 2, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marvel?
The federal record around Marvel shows 57 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Marvel?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marvel's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marvel'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 Marvel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marvel's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 85 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marvel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Marvel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 16 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marvel, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marvel's boundary and the 85 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Marvel sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marvel's 85 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Plata County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom La Plata 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 La Plata County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marvel's 85 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marvel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 85 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Marvel-wide figureread your own land →
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