Palisade, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Palisade, 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 Palisade 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 Palisade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palisade — the short answer
Palisade, Colorado: USDA zone 7a, about 210 days between hard freezes, across 760 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~210
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 760 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 7a is Palisade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palisade's 210-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palisade
Each reading below is measured for Palisade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalisade runs about 210 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPalisade sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Palisade is in
Palisade sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Palisade's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mesa County.
What Grows in Palisade
Every plant below cleared Palisade's own zone 7a and its 210-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palisade?
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 Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Palisade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palisade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Cameo Power PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Fruita Combustion TurbineUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Palisade Dino MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- David D Alber PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- C & F Food Store #8Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Road Runner Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Abandon TankUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Mole Parker EnterprisesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Golden GateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- K & R ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Moreys Engine ExchangeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Udderly Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palisade'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 Palisade.
Total Sites
159
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palisade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palisade, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 101 sites within ~10 miles of Palisade. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Palisade
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 Palisade average
Your land is one point inside Palisade
Everything above resolves to Palisade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 760 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 Palisade Average
Palisade Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Palisade
- ●One soil character for all of Palisade
- ●Frost dates read at Palisade's scale: Apr 6 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palisade's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palisade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palisade, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palisade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palisade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palisade average
How we know this about Palisade
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 Palisade’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 Palisade
When does frost risk typically end in Palisade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palisade typically lands around Apr 6, 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 Apr 27.
When is the first frost in Palisade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palisade typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 210 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palisade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palisade sees about 210 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 19, about 175 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palisade?
The federal record around Palisade is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Palisade?
From about Oct 3 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 Nov 2 (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 Nov 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palisade's scale — its 7a band and its 210-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palisade'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 Palisade’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palisade's own scale — its own ~210-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palisade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palisade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Nov 2 and the ~210-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palisade, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palisade's boundary and the 760 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~210-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palisade's own centroid, the Colorado PlateausUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palisade's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mesa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mesa 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 Mesa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palisade's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palisade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 760 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Palisade-wide figureread your own land →
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