Saddle Ridge, 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 Saddle Ridge, 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 Saddle Ridge 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 Saddle Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saddle Ridge — the short answer
Saddle Ridge, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 111 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 111 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 Saddle Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saddle Ridge's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saddle Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Saddle Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSaddle Ridge runs about 172 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
MeasuredSaddle Ridge 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 Saddle Ridge is in
Saddle Ridge sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Saddle Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Saddle Ridge
Every plant below cleared Saddle Ridge's own zone 5b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saddle Ridge?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
What's on the federal record near Saddle Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saddle Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMLAND COOP INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Fort Morgan Municipal Airport Carpenter Flying Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CIG YOUNG STORAGE FACILITYBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- SB00405825ADD NAWQA 6Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Fort Morgan Golf Course MaintenanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- COLORADO INTERSTATE GAS COMPANY LLC-4B-ADENA REG STATIONBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- FORT MORGAN SUBSTATIONSuperfund · 3.3 mi
- Bovaird Supply Co Log Lane VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Log Lane Food And GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Fomo ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Crystals One Stop #7Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- WESTERN SUGAR COOPERATIVEBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saddle Ridge'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 Saddle Ridge.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Saddle Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saddle Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saddle Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saddle Ridge, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Saddle Ridge. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Saddle Ridge
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 Saddle Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Saddle Ridge
Everything above resolves to Saddle Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 111 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 Saddle Ridge Average
Saddle Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Saddle Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Saddle Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Saddle Ridge's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saddle Ridge's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saddle Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saddle Ridge, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saddle Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saddle Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saddle Ridge average
How we know this about Saddle Ridge
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 Saddle Ridge’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 Saddle Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Saddle Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saddle Ridge typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Saddle Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saddle Ridge typically arrives around Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 1, so the watching starts about Sep 15 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saddle Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saddle Ridge sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 1, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saddle Ridge?
The federal record around Saddle Ridge is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (101), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Saddle Ridge?
From about Sep 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saddle Ridge's scale — its 5b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saddle Ridge'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 Saddle Ridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Saddle Ridge's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 111 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saddle Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Saddle Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 15 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saddle Ridge, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saddle Ridge's boundary and the 111 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Saddle Ridge's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saddle Ridge's 111 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saddle Ridge's 111 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saddle Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 111 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Saddle Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
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