Palmer Lake, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Palmer Lake, 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 Palmer Lake 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 Palmer Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palmer Lake — the short answer
Palmer Lake, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 149 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~149
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Palmer Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palmer Lake's 149-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palmer Lake
Each reading below is measured for Palmer Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPalmer Lake runs about 149 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
MeasuredPalmer Lake 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 Palmer Lake is in
Palmer Lake sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Palmer Lake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: El Paso County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Palmer Lake
Every plant below cleared Palmer Lake's own zone 5b and its 149-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palmer Lake?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Palmer Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palmer Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Palmer Lake General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Paul Fletcher & Sons IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Town Of Palmer Lake - Town ShopsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Charline McCallUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Jay CedarleafUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Price Truck SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CDOT MonumentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TRI-LAKES COLLISIONBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- Wilmar Cornerstone Real EstateUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SAFEWAY STORE #1440Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- Safeway Fuel Center #1440Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Monument Texaco IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palmer Lake'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 Palmer Lake.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Palmer Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palmer Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palmer Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palmer Lake, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Palmer Lake. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Palmer Lake
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 Palmer Lake average
Your land is one point inside Palmer Lake
Everything above resolves to Palmer Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Palmer Lake Average
Palmer Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Palmer Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Palmer Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Palmer Lake's scale: May 9 to Oct 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palmer Lake's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palmer Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palmer Lake, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palmer Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palmer Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palmer Lake average
How we know this about Palmer Lake
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 Palmer Lake’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 Palmer Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Palmer Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palmer Lake typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Palmer Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palmer Lake typically arrives around Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 21, so the watching starts about Sep 5 — about 149 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palmer Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palmer Lake sees about 149 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 21, about 114 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palmer Lake?
The federal record around Palmer Lake is a meaningful one — 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), 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 Palmer Lake?
With about 149 frost-free days between hard freezes, Palmer Lake 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 177 to 205 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 9 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Palmer Lake's scale — its 5b band and its 149-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palmer Lake'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 Palmer Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Palmer Lake's own scale — its own ~149-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,979 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palmer Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Palmer Lake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 5 and the ~149-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palmer Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palmer Lake's boundary and the 1,979 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~149-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Palmer Lake sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palmer Lake's 1,979 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palmer Lake's 1,979 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palmer Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,979 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 Palmer Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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