Mountain Village, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain Village, 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 Mountain Village 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 Mountain Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mountain Village — the short answer
Mountain Village, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 120 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~120
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 5b is Mountain Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Village's 120-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Village
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMountain Village runs about 120 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
MeasuredMountain Village 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 Mountain Village is in
Mountain Village sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Mountain Village's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Miguel County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mountain Village
Every plant below cleared Mountain Village's own zone 5b and its 120-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Village?
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 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 27 — 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 Mountain Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CDOT TellurideUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- THE MADELINE HOTEL AND RESIDENCESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- The Peaks ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Town Of Mountain VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TSG Mountain OperationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TSG - LIFT MAINTENANCEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Society ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- TELLURIDE SPORTS SOCIETY TURN BUSINESS CBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- TELLURIDE VALLEY FLOORSuperfund · 1.8 mi
- Telluride ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Telluride School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Telluride Public SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Village'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 Mountain Village.
Total Sites
336
within ~10 miles of Mountain Village
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
14 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mountain Village — Mining (290 sites) and Superfund (14 sites). 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.
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 Mountain Village
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 Mountain Village average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Village
Everything above resolves to Mountain Village 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 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 Mountain Village Average
Mountain Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Mountain Village
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Village
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Village's scale: May 30 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Village's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Village, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Village average
How we know this about Mountain Village
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 Mountain Village’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 Mountain Village
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Village 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 Mountain Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Village 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 120 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Village sees about 120 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 13, about 85 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain Village?
The federal record around Mountain Village runs heavier than most — 336 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (290), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Mountain Village?
With about 120 frost-free days between hard freezes, Mountain Village 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 148 to 176 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 Mountain Village's scale — its 5b band and its 120-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Village'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 Mountain Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Village's own scale — its own ~120-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,112 acres it covers and 336 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mountain Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 27 and the ~120-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 336 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Village, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Village's boundary and the 2,112 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~120-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mountain Village sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain Village's 2,112 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Miguel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Miguel 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 San Miguel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain Village's 2,112 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,112 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mountain Village-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoMountain Village sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides