Orchard, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Orchard, 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 Orchard 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 Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Orchard — the short answer
Orchard, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 102 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 102 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 Orchard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Orchard's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Orchard
Each reading below is measured for Orchard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOrchard runs about 168 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
MeasuredOrchard 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 Orchard is in
Orchard sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Orchard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Orchard
Every plant below cleared Orchard's own zone 5a and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Orchard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Orchard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Orchard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SB00406005CCC2Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- SB00406005CCC1Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- Jackson Lake State Recreational AreaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- SB00406024CCC1Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- SB00406024DCC1Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- JA TIMMERMAN WIGGINSCAFO · 4.9 mi
- SB00505930CBA NAWQA 13Nitrate · 5.2 mi
- PENSKE TRUCK LEASING CO LPBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- SB00306009BBB NAWQA 4Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- FRONT RANGE FARMS, LLCCAFO · 6.4 mi
- Wiggins Junction LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- CHAPIN DAIRYCAFO · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Orchard'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 Orchard.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
5 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Orchard
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Orchard, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Orchard — CAFO (5 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Orchard
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 Orchard average
Your land is one point inside Orchard
Everything above resolves to Orchard as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 102 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 Orchard Average
Orchard Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Orchard
- ●One soil character for all of Orchard
- ●Frost dates read at Orchard's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Orchard's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Orchard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Orchard, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Orchard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Orchard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Orchard average
How we know this about Orchard
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 Orchard’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 Orchard
When does frost risk typically end in Orchard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Orchard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Orchard typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Orchard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Orchard sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Sep 27, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Orchard?
The federal record around Orchard is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Orchard?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Orchard's scale — its 5a band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Orchard'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 Orchard’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Orchard's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 102 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Orchard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Orchard's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 11 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Orchard, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Orchard's boundary and the 102 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Orchard's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Orchard's 102 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Orchard's 102 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Orchard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 102 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Orchard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region
Nearby growing guides