McCoy, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 McCoy, 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 McCoy 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 McCoy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McCoy — the short answer
McCoy, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 188 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 188 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 McCoy's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McCoy's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McCoy
Each reading below is measured for McCoy itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMcCoy runs about 138 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
MeasuredMcCoy 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 McCoy is in
McCoy sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at McCoy's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in McCoy
Every plant below cleared McCoy's own zone 5a and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McCoy?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near McCoy
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McCoy. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bambi Enterprises IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Burns & MccoyMining · 1.0 mi
- Copper KingMining · 2.7 mi
- Copper SpurMining · 2.7 mi
- Cole MineMining · 2.9 mi
- Papa Dicks Trading PostUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Rio Grande & Copper QueenMining · 3.5 mi
- Bond YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Red GorgeMining · 8.1 mi
- UnknownMining · 9.1 mi
- Union Pacific Rr Radium YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- Burns General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
Measured from McCoy'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 McCoy.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McCoy
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in McCoy
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 McCoy average
Your land is one point inside McCoy
Everything above resolves to McCoy as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 188 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 McCoy Average
McCoy Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across McCoy
- ●One soil character for all of McCoy
- ●Frost dates read at McCoy's scale: May 13 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McCoy's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McCoy
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McCoy, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McCoy averages can't show:
We read public map data around McCoy — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McCoy average
How we know this about McCoy
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 McCoy’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 McCoy
When does frost risk typically end in McCoy?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McCoy typically lands around May 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in McCoy?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McCoy typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McCoy?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McCoy sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 13 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 3 to Sep 14, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McCoy?
The federal record around McCoy shows 13 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 gardeners stretch the season in McCoy?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, McCoy 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 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 13 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at McCoy's scale — its 5a band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McCoy'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 McCoy’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McCoy's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 188 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McCoy's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- McCoy's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 13 and Sep 28 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McCoy, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McCoy's boundary and the 188 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McCoy's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McCoy's 188 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eagle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eagle 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 Eagle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McCoy's 188 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McCoy you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 188 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 McCoy-wide figureread your own land →