Paoli, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Paoli, 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 Paoli 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 Paoli — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Paoli — the short answer
Paoli, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 189 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 189 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 Paoli's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paoli's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paoli
Each reading below is measured for Paoli itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaoli runs about 175 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
MeasuredPaoli 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 Paoli is in
Paoli sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Paoli's own centroid rather than borrowed from Phillips County.
What Grows in Paoli
Every plant below cleared Paoli's own zone 5b and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paoli?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Paoli
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paoli. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Starkebaum FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CDOT HaxtunUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- Haxtun RclrUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- Phillips County Dept Of RoadsUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- AMPRIDE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- Bamford Land Co FeedyardUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- Haxtun Sav-O-MatUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- Randall Gibbs PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- CDOT HolyokeUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- Burton Amoco ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.4 mi
- Smith Hardware CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- Town Of HaxtunUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paoli'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 Paoli.
Total Sites
40
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paoli
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paoli, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Paoli. 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 Paoli
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 Paoli average
Your land is one point inside Paoli
Everything above resolves to Paoli as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 189 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 Paoli Average
Paoli Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Paoli
- ●One soil character for all of Paoli
- ●Frost dates read at Paoli's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paoli's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paoli
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paoli, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paoli averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paoli — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paoli average
How we know this about Paoli
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 Paoli’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 Paoli
When does frost risk typically end in Paoli?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paoli typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Paoli?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paoli typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paoli?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paoli sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 2, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paoli?
The federal record around Paoli is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Paoli?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paoli's scale — its 5b band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paoli'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 Paoli’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paoli's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 189 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paoli's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paoli's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 16 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paoli, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paoli's boundary and the 189 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paoli's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paoli's 189 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Phillips County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Phillips 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 Phillips County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paoli's 189 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paoli you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 189 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Paoli-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region