North La Junta, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North La Junta, 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 North La Junta 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 North La Junta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North La Junta — the short answer
North La Junta, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 870 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 870 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 6a is North La Junta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North La Junta's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North La Junta
Each reading below is measured for North La Junta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth La Junta runs about 194 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredNorth La Junta sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 North La Junta is in
North La Junta sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at North La Junta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Otero County.
What Grows in North La Junta
Every plant below cleared North La Junta's own zone 6a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North La Junta?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near North La Junta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North La Junta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OTERO COUNTY ASBESTOS SITESuperfund · 1800 ft
- SC02305536BCCNitrate · 2100 ft
- SC02305536DCDNitrate · 2300 ft
- Ward Transport TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Loaf N Jug #16Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Ralf Malers PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOCO 21 RURAL ASBESTOSSuperfund · 1.0 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5100Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- City Of La JuntaUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Wallace Oil CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- SC02405502BBDNitrate · 1.1 mi
- E & M CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North La Junta'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 North La Junta.
Total Sites
158
within ~10 miles of North La Junta
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North La Junta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North La Junta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North La Junta, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North La Junta — Superfund (6 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in North La Junta
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 North La Junta average
Your land is one point inside North La Junta
Everything above resolves to North La Junta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 870 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 North La Junta Average
North La Junta Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across North La Junta
- ●One soil character for all of North La Junta
- ●Frost dates read at North La Junta's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North La Junta's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North La Junta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North La Junta, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North La Junta averages can't show:
We read public map data around North La Junta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North La Junta average
How we know this about North La Junta
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 North La Junta’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 North La Junta
When does frost risk typically end in North La Junta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North La Junta typically lands around Apr 12, 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in North La Junta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North La Junta typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North La Junta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North La Junta sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 9, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North La Junta?
The federal record around North La Junta is a meaningful one — 158 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Superfund 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 I protect my plants from frost in North La Junta?
From about Sep 23 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Oct 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Oct 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North La Junta's scale — its 6a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North La Junta'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 North La Junta’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at North La Junta's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 870 acres it covers and 158 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North La Junta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- North La Junta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 23 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North La Junta, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North La Junta's boundary and the 870 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North La Junta's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North La Junta's 870 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North La Junta's 870 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North La Junta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 870 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 North La Junta-wide figureread your own land →