Nathrop, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nathrop, 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 Nathrop 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 Nathrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nathrop — the short answer
Nathrop, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 138 days between hard freezes, across 463 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~138
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 463 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 Nathrop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nathrop's 138-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nathrop
Each reading below is measured for Nathrop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNathrop runs about 138 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
MeasuredNathrop 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 Nathrop is in
Nathrop sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Nathrop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chaffee County.
What Grows in Nathrop
Every plant below cleared Nathrop's own zone 5b and its 138-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nathrop?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Nathrop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nathrop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Michelle ThibaultUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Kaas Kop BaseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Chalk Cliffs Fish HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- Gunsmoke Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Valley View Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Johnson Village TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Mt Princeton Hot Springs ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- FuturityMining · 4.9 mi
- Eveready Freight Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- COLO DEPT OF CORRECTIONS - BVCC/MC & CCABrownfields · 5.4 mi
- NA051-008-17BCC01Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- Speedy MineMining · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nathrop'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 Nathrop.
Total Sites
92
within ~10 miles of Nathrop
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nathrop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nathrop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nathrop, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nathrop — Mining (27 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Nathrop
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 Nathrop average
Your land is one point inside Nathrop
Everything above resolves to Nathrop as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 463 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 Nathrop Average
Nathrop Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Nathrop
- ●One soil character for all of Nathrop
- ●Frost dates read at Nathrop's scale: May 14 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nathrop's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nathrop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nathrop, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nathrop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nathrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nathrop average
How we know this about Nathrop
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 Nathrop’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 Nathrop
When does frost risk typically end in Nathrop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nathrop typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Nathrop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nathrop typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 138 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nathrop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nathrop sees about 138 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 15, about 103 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nathrop?
The federal record around Nathrop is a meaningful one — 92 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Nathrop?
With about 138 frost-free days between hard freezes, Nathrop 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 166 to 194 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Nathrop's scale — its 5b band and its 138-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nathrop'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 Nathrop’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nathrop's own scale — its own ~138-day season between 28°F freezes, the 463 acres it covers and 92 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nathrop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nathrop's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Sep 29 and the ~138-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 92 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nathrop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nathrop's boundary and the 463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~138-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nathrop's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nathrop's 463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chaffee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chaffee 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 Chaffee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nathrop's 463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nathrop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Nathrop-wide figureread your own land →