Monte Vista, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Monte Vista, 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 Monte Vista 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 Monte Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monte Vista — the short answer
Monte Vista, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 132 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~132
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Monte Vista's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monte Vista's 132-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monte Vista
Each reading below is measured for Monte Vista itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonte Vista runs about 132 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
MeasuredMonte Vista 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 Monte Vista is in
Monte Vista sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Monte Vista's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rio Grande County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Monte Vista
Every plant below cleared Monte Vista's own zone 5a and its 132-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monte Vista?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Monte Vista
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monte Vista. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Discount Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Alta Convenience #3502Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Monte Vista SpiritUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- SPARKLE CLEANERSBrownfields · 950 ft
- AT&T Monte Vista RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Monte Vista Schools #8Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Felix ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- J R's #815Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SCHALL CHEMICAL SUPPLY LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- Brimhall IndustrialUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Rio Grande County Road DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Monte Vista Tire CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monte Vista'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 Monte Vista.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Monte Vista
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monte Vista
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monte Vista
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monte Vista, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites within ~10 miles of Monte Vista. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Monte Vista
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 Monte Vista average
Your land is one point inside Monte Vista
Everything above resolves to Monte Vista as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Monte Vista Average
Monte Vista Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Monte Vista
- ●One soil character for all of Monte Vista
- ●Frost dates read at Monte Vista's scale: May 18 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monte Vista's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monte Vista
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monte Vista, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monte Vista averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monte Vista — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monte Vista average
How we know this about Monte Vista
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Monte Vista’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Monte Vista
When does frost risk typically end in Monte Vista?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monte Vista typically lands around May 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Monte Vista?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monte Vista typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 132 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monte Vista?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monte Vista sees about 132 frost-free days — roughly May 18 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 8 to Sep 13, about 97 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monte Vista?
The federal record around Monte Vista is a meaningful one — 130 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monte Vista?
With about 132 frost-free days between hard freezes, Monte Vista 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 160 to 188 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 18 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Monte Vista's scale — its 5a band and its 132-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monte Vista'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 Monte Vista’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Monte Vista's own scale — its own ~132-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,688 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monte Vista's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monte Vista's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 18 and Sep 27 and the ~132-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monte Vista, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monte Vista's boundary and the 1,688 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~132-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Monte Vista 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 Monte Vista's 1,688 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rio Grande County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rio Grande 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 Rio Grande County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monte Vista's 1,688 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monte Vista you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,688 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Monte Vista-wide figureread your own land →
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