Midland, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Midland, 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 Midland 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 Midland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midland — the short answer
Midland, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 130 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 21
- 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
- ~130
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Midland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midland's 130-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midland
Each reading below is measured for Midland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMidland runs about 130 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
MeasuredMidland 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 Midland is in
Midland sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Midland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Teller County.
What Grows in Midland
Every plant below cleared Midland's own zone 5b and its 130-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midland?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 21 (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. 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 Midland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RAINBOW VALLEY WATER DISTRICT WHITE POWDERSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- District Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Evergreen StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Wildwood StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Divide ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CDOT Divide Hwy Construction ProjectUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Teller County Dept Of TransUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CDOT Cripple CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CRIPPLE CREEK CARE CENTERBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- Tenderfoot SinclairUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- MATERIALS MANAGEMENT COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 6.7 mi
- DIVIDE COLLISION CENTER / QUALITY COLLISION INCBrownfields · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midland'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 Midland.
Total Sites
49
within ~10 miles of Midland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midland, Mining runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Midland. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Midland
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 Midland average
Your land is one point inside Midland
Everything above resolves to Midland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Midland Average
Midland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Midland
- ●One soil character for all of Midland
- ●Frost dates read at Midland's scale: May 21 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midland, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midland average
How we know this about Midland
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 Midland’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 Midland
When does frost risk typically end in Midland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midland typically lands around May 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 Jun 11.
When is the first frost in Midland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midland 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 130 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midland sees about 130 frost-free days — roughly May 21 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 11 to Sep 14, about 95 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midland?
The federal record around Midland is a meaningful one — 49 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Superfund record about 0.7 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 gardeners stretch the season in Midland?
With about 130 frost-free days between hard freezes, Midland 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 158 to 186 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 21 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Midland's scale — its 5b band and its 130-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midland'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 Midland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Midland's own scale — its own ~130-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,101 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Midland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 21 and Sep 28 and the ~130-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midland, the closest Superfund record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midland's boundary and the 1,101 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~130-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midland's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midland's 1,101 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Teller County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Teller 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 Teller County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midland's 1,101 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,101 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.7 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 Midland-wide figureread your own land →