Nederland, 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.
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 Nederland, 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 Nederland 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 Nederland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Nederland — the short answer
Nederland, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 947 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- 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
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 947 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 Nederland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nederland's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nederland
Each reading below is measured for Nederland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNederland runs about 136 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
MeasuredNederland 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 Nederland is in
Nederland sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Nederland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boulder County.
What Grows in Nederland
Every plant below cleared Nederland's own zone 5b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nederland?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (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. 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 Nederland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nederland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOUNTAIN AUTOBODYBrownfields · 500 ft
- Kwik Mart #2Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- PotosiMining · 1200 ft
- Western SlopeMining · 1200 ft
- Nederland Bus TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Gasamat/Cigarette Store #127Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Boulder Road Dist 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Boulder County Road Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CDOT NederlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF CO BOULDER-MT RESEARCH CNTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SC00107207DDCB SITE 014Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Stevens Camp TunnelsMining · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nederland'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 Nederland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nederland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nederland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nederland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nederland — Mining (154 sites) and Superfund (6 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 Nederland
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 Nederland average
Your land is one point inside Nederland
Everything above resolves to Nederland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 947 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 Nederland Average
Nederland Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Nederland
- ●One soil character for all of Nederland
- ●Frost dates read at Nederland's scale: May 16 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nederland's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nederland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nederland, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nederland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nederland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nederland average
How we know this about Nederland
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 Nederland’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 Nederland
When does frost risk typically end in Nederland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nederland typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Nederland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nederland 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 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nederland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nederland sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 15, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nederland?
The federal record around Nederland runs heavier than most — 277 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (154), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nederland?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Nederland 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 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Nederland's scale — its 5b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nederland'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 Nederland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nederland's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 947 acres it covers and 277 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nederland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nederland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Sep 29 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 277 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nederland, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nederland's boundary and the 947 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nederland's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nederland's 947 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boulder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boulder 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 Boulder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nederland's 947 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nederland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 947 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Nederland-wide figureread your own land →