Redstone, 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.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Redstone, 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 Redstone 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 Redstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Redstone — the short answer
Redstone, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 147 days between hard freezes, across 280 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 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~147
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 280 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 Redstone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Redstone's 147-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Redstone
Each reading below is measured for Redstone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRedstone runs about 147 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
MeasuredRedstone 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 Redstone is in
Redstone sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Redstone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pitkin County.
What Grows in Redstone
Every plant below cleared Redstone's own zone 5b and its 147-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Redstone?
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 3 — 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 Redstone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Redstone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Redstone General StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PENNY HOT SPRINGSNitrate · 3.2 mi
- UnknownMining · 3.6 mi
- Spring Butte MineMining · 3.6 mi
- Ground Hog GroupMining · 3.6 mi
- M & J ClaimMining · 4.6 mi
- CARBONDALE TOWN OFPFAS · 6.1 mi
- MID VALLEY MDPFAS · 6.1 mi
- Genter MineMining · 6.6 mi
- Chair Creek TunnelMining · 6.8 mi
- Rapid Creek MineMining · 6.8 mi
- TuscaroraMining · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Redstone'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 Redstone.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Redstone
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Redstone
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Redstone, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Redstone. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Redstone
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 Redstone average
Your land is one point inside Redstone
Everything above resolves to Redstone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 280 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 Redstone Average
Redstone Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Redstone
- ●One soil character for all of Redstone
- ●Frost dates read at Redstone's scale: May 9 to Oct 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Redstone's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Redstone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Redstone, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Redstone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Redstone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Redstone average
How we know this about Redstone
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 Redstone’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 Redstone
When does frost risk typically end in Redstone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Redstone 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 Redstone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Redstone typically arrives around Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 19, so the watching starts about Sep 3 — about 147 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Redstone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Redstone sees about 147 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 19, about 112 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Redstone?
The federal record around Redstone runs heavier than most — 35 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (28), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Redstone?
With about 147 frost-free days between hard freezes, Redstone 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 175 to 203 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 Redstone's scale — its 5b band and its 147-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Redstone'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 Redstone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Redstone's own scale — its own ~147-day season between 28°F freezes, the 280 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Redstone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Redstone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 3 and the ~147-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Redstone, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Redstone's boundary and the 280 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~147-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Redstone's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Redstone's 280 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pitkin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pitkin 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 Pitkin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Redstone's 280 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Redstone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 280 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Redstone-wide figureread your own land →