Moffat, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Moffat, 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 Moffat 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 Moffat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Moffat — the short answer
Moffat, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 144 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~144
- 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 5a is Moffat's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Moffat's 144-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Moffat
Each reading below is measured for Moffat itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMoffat runs about 144 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
MeasuredMoffat 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 Moffat is in
Moffat sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Moffat's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Saguache County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Moffat
Every plant below cleared Moffat's own zone 5a and its 144-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Moffat?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — 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 Moffat
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Moffat. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOFFAT ASBESTOS SITESuperfund · 2500 ft
- Moffat School #2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Abandoned Filling StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- NA04300910BABNitrate · 3.5 mi
- Union-Carbonate ShaftMining · 4.9 mi
- Unnamed MineMining · 4.9 mi
- Sawyer ShaftMining · 4.9 mi
- SC04400911ABBNitrate · 6.1 mi
- NA04300920DDDNitrate · 6.1 mi
- NA04400905AAANitrate · 8.0 mi
- Hiawatha CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- NA04400905ABB USGS 380605106002501Nitrate · 8.5 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Moffat'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 Moffat.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Moffat
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Moffat
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Moffat
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •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 Moffat
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 Moffat average
Your land is one point inside Moffat
Everything above resolves to Moffat 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 Moffat Average
Moffat Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Moffat
- ●One soil character for all of Moffat
- ●Frost dates read at Moffat's scale: May 11 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Moffat's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Moffat
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Moffat, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Moffat averages can't show:
We read public map data around Moffat — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Moffat average
How we know this about Moffat
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 Moffat’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 Moffat
When does frost risk typically end in Moffat?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Moffat typically lands around May 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Moffat?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Moffat typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 144 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Moffat?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Moffat sees about 144 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 18, about 109 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Moffat?
The federal record around Moffat is a meaningful one — 23 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Superfund record about 0.5 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 Moffat?
With about 144 frost-free days between hard freezes, Moffat 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 172 to 200 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Moffat's scale — its 5a band and its 144-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Moffat'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 Moffat’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Moffat's own scale — its own ~144-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,358 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Moffat's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Moffat's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 2 and the ~144-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Moffat, the closest Superfund record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Moffat's boundary and the 1,358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~144-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Moffat sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Moffat's 1,358 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Saguache County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Saguache 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 Saguache County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Moffat's 1,358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Moffat you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.5 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 Moffat-wide figureread your own land →
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