Placerville, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Placerville, 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 Placerville 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 Placerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Placerville — the short answer
Placerville, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 139 days between hard freezes, across 494 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 16
- 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
- ~139
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 494 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 6a is Placerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Placerville's 139-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Placerville
Each reading below is measured for Placerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlacerville runs about 139 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
MeasuredPlacerville sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Placerville is in
Placerville sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Placerville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Miguel County is mostly Colorado Plateaus. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Placerville
Every plant below cleared Placerville's own zone 6a and its 139-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Placerville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 16 (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 Placerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Placerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- White Spar MineMining · 1.0 mi
- Fas Glass & Building SpecialUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- IronsideMining · 1.0 mi
- Bachelor Corp. MillMining · 1.0 mi
- Rare MetalsMining · 1.1 mi
- Crescent CityMining · 1.1 mi
- Lower San Miguel DistrictMining · 1.1 mi
- Binkley-Sawpit ProjectMining · 1.4 mi
- Black King MineMining · 1.4 mi
- Silver SlipperMining · 1.8 mi
- BLM-SAWPIT TRAM SITE (ORE STORAGE)Superfund · 1.8 mi
- UnkMining · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Placerville'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 Placerville.
Total Sites
38
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Placerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Placerville, Mining runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Placerville. 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.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Placerville
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 Placerville average
Your land is one point inside Placerville
Everything above resolves to Placerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 494 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 Placerville Average
Placerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Placerville
- ●One soil character for all of Placerville
- ●Frost dates read at Placerville's scale: May 16 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Placerville's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Placerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Placerville, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Placerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Placerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Placerville average
How we know this about Placerville
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 Placerville’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 Placerville
When does frost risk typically end in Placerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Placerville typically lands around May 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Placerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Placerville 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 139 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Placerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Placerville sees about 139 frost-free days — roughly May 16 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 6 to Sep 18, about 104 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Placerville?
The federal record around Placerville runs heavier than most — 38 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (24), the nearest Mining record about 1.0 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 Placerville?
With about 139 frost-free days between hard freezes, Placerville 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 167 to 195 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 16 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Placerville's scale — its 6a band and its 139-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Placerville'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 Placerville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Placerville's own scale — its own ~139-day season between 28°F freezes, the 494 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Placerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Placerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 16 and Oct 2 and the ~139-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Placerville, the closest Mining record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Placerville's boundary and the 494 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~139-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Placerville 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 Placerville's 494 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Miguel County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Miguel 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 San Miguel County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Placerville's 494 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Placerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 494 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.0 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 Placerville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Wider growing context
What grows across ColoradoPlacerville sits outside our named growing regions, so Colorado as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides