Pine Valley, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Pine Valley, 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 Pine Valley 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 Pine Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Valley — the short answer
Pine Valley, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 141 days between hard freezes, across 527 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~141
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 527 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 Pine Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Valley's 141-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pine Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Valley runs about 141 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
MeasuredPine Valley 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 Pine Valley is in
Pine Valley sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Pine Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clear Creek County.
What Grows in Pine Valley
Every plant below cleared Pine Valley's own zone 5b and its 141-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Valley?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — 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 Pine Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Grover MineMining · 0.7 mi
- Unnamed Rutile OccurrenceMining · 0.8 mi
- David F Youngblood / Titan TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- UnknownMining · 1.0 mi
- Brandt Beryl-Topaz ProspectMining · 1.5 mi
- Shaffer Hill-Jacobsen Ranch Peg.Mining · 1.5 mi
- Jacobson RanchMining · 1.7 mi
- Molly Bawn MineMining · 1.8 mi
- GroverMining · 1.9 mi
- Shaffer HillMining · 2.1 mi
- Jacobsen RanchMining · 2.1 mi
- BrandtMining · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Valley'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 Pine Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Valley — Mining (412 sites) and Nitrate (258 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Pine Valley
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 Pine Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pine Valley
Everything above resolves to Pine Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 527 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 Pine Valley Average
Pine Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Pine Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Valley's scale: May 14 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Valley's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Valley, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Valley average
How we know this about Pine Valley
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 Pine Valley’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 Pine Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Valley typically lands around May 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Pine Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Valley typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 141 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Valley sees about 141 frost-free days — roughly May 14 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 4 to Sep 18, about 106 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Valley?
The federal record around Pine Valley runs heavier than most — 790 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (412), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Pine Valley?
With about 141 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pine Valley 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 169 to 197 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 14 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pine Valley's scale — its 5b band and its 141-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Valley'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 Pine Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Valley's own scale — its own ~141-day season between 28°F freezes, the 527 acres it covers and 790 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 14 and Oct 2 and the ~141-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 790 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Valley, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Valley's boundary and the 527 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~141-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Valley's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Valley's 527 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clear Creek County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clear Creek 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 Clear Creek County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Valley's 527 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 527 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 Pine Valley-wide figureread your own land →