Rico, 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 okra, blackberry, lavender, and pumpkin — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rico, 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 Rico 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 Rico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Rico — the short answer
Rico, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 113 days between hard freezes, across 434 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jun 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~113
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 434 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 Rico's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rico's 113-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rico
Each reading below is measured for Rico itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRico runs about 113 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
MeasuredRico 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 Rico is in
Rico sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Rico's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dolores County.
What Grows in Rico
Every plant below cleared Rico's own zone 5b and its 113-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rico?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jun 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — 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 Rico
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rico. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mountain Top Fuel And MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- Rico Town ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Whitewater Rr 250663Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Shamrock and Atlantic CableMining · 1300 ft
- Rico DistrictMining · 1400 ft
- WhimMining · 1400 ft
- Ramco ClaimsMining · 1400 ft
- Ben GroupMining · 1400 ft
- Burns GroupMining · 1400 ft
- Negro BabyMining · 1400 ft
- Clan CampbellMining · 1400 ft
- St. LouisMining · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rico'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 Rico.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Rico
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rico
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rico
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rico, Mining runs higher than the national average — 135 sites within ~10 miles of Rico. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Rico
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 Rico average
Your land is one point inside Rico
Everything above resolves to Rico as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 434 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 Rico Average
Rico Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Rico
- ●One soil character for all of Rico
- ●Frost dates read at Rico's scale: Jun 3 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rico's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rico
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rico, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rico averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rico — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rico average
How we know this about Rico
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 Rico’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 Rico
When does frost risk typically end in Rico?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rico typically lands around Jun 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Rico?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rico typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 113 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rico?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rico sees about 113 frost-free days — roughly Jun 3 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 24 to Sep 10, about 78 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rico?
The federal record around Rico runs heavier than most — 142 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (135), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rico?
With about 113 frost-free days between hard freezes, Rico 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 141 to 169 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the Jun 3 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Rico's scale — its 5b band and its 113-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rico'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 Rico’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rico's own scale — its own ~113-day season between 28°F freezes, the 434 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rico's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rico's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jun 3 and Sep 24 and the ~113-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rico, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rico's boundary and the 434 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~113-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rico's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rico's 434 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dolores County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dolores 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 Dolores County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rico's 434 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rico you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 434 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Rico-wide figureread your own land →