Pagosa Springs, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Pagosa Springs, 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 Pagosa Springs 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 Pagosa Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pagosa Springs — the short answer
Pagosa Springs, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 137 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~137
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Pagosa Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pagosa Springs's 137-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pagosa Springs
Each reading below is measured for Pagosa Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPagosa Springs runs about 137 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
MeasuredPagosa Springs 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 Pagosa Springs is in
Pagosa Springs sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pagosa Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Archuleta County.
What Grows in Pagosa Springs
Every plant below cleared Pagosa Springs's own zone 5b and its 137-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pagosa Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — 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 Pagosa Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pagosa Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- US Forest ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Pagosa Food & Fuel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Copper QueenMining · 2100 ft
- Treasure-ComstockMining · 2100 ft
- Amoco SsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- AT&T Pagosa Springs RsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Hc Mcswain PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Antique Stove ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Riverview EverydayUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Everyday Store #5715Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Mataya's ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pagosa Springs'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 Pagosa Springs.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pagosa Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pagosa Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pagosa Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Pagosa Springs. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pagosa Springs
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 Pagosa Springs average
Your land is one point inside Pagosa Springs
Everything above resolves to Pagosa Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Pagosa Springs Average
Pagosa Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pagosa Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Pagosa Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Pagosa Springs's scale: May 20 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pagosa Springs's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pagosa Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pagosa Springs, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pagosa Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pagosa Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pagosa Springs average
How we know this about Pagosa Springs
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 Pagosa Springs’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 Pagosa Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Pagosa Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pagosa Springs typically lands around May 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Pagosa Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pagosa Springs typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 137 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pagosa Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pagosa Springs sees about 137 frost-free days — roughly May 20 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 10 to Sep 20, about 102 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pagosa Springs?
The federal record around Pagosa Springs is a meaningful one — 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pagosa Springs?
With about 137 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pagosa Springs 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 165 to 193 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 20 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pagosa Springs's scale — its 5b band and its 137-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pagosa Springs'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 Pagosa Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pagosa Springs's own scale — its own ~137-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,240 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pagosa Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pagosa Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 20 and Oct 4 and the ~137-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pagosa Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pagosa Springs's boundary and the 3,240 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~137-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pagosa Springs's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pagosa Springs's 3,240 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Archuleta County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Archuleta 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 Archuleta County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pagosa Springs's 3,240 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pagosa Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,240 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pagosa Springs-wide figureread your own land →