Minturn, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Minturn, 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 Minturn 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 Minturn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Minturn — the short answer
Minturn, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 119 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~119
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Minturn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Minturn's 119-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Minturn
Each reading below is measured for Minturn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMinturn runs about 119 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
MeasuredMinturn 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 Minturn is in
Minturn sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Minturn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in Minturn
Every plant below cleared Minturn's own zone 5b and its 119-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Minturn?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 26 — 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 Minturn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Minturn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GilmanMining · 1600 ft
- EAGLE MINESuperfund · 0.6 mi
- Gilman (Red Cliff) DistrictMining · 0.6 mi
- Eagle MineMining · 0.9 mi
- Iron MaskMining · 0.9 mi
- EagleMining · 0.9 mi
- BELDEN CRIBBINGSSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Tip Top MineMining · 0.9 mi
- LIBERTY WELL AT WILLOW CREEKNitrate · 1.0 mi
- EAGLE RIVER ABANDONED MINESSuperfund · 1.2 mi
- Conoco SsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Charles R WarrenUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Minturn'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 Minturn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Minturn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Minturn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Minturn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Minturn — Mining (15 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Minturn
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 Minturn average
Your land is one point inside Minturn
Everything above resolves to Minturn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Minturn Average
Minturn Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Minturn
- ●One soil character for all of Minturn
- ●Frost dates read at Minturn's scale: May 30 to Sep 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Minturn's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Minturn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Minturn, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Minturn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Minturn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Minturn average
How we know this about Minturn
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 Minturn’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 Minturn
When does frost risk typically end in Minturn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Minturn typically lands around May 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Minturn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Minturn typically arrives around Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 12, so the watching starts about Aug 27 — about 119 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Minturn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Minturn sees about 119 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 12, about 84 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Minturn?
The federal record around Minturn runs heavier than most — 159 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Mining 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 Minturn?
With about 119 frost-free days between hard freezes, Minturn 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 147 to 175 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Minturn's scale — its 5b band and its 119-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Minturn'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 Minturn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Minturn's own scale — its own ~119-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,117 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Minturn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Minturn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 26 and the ~119-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Minturn, the closest Mining record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Minturn's boundary and the 5,117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~119-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Minturn's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Minturn's 5,117 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 Minturn's 5,117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Minturn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,117 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Minturn-wide figureread your own land →
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