Salt Creek, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Salt Creek, 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 Salt Creek 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 Salt Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Salt Creek — the short answer
Salt Creek, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 276 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 276 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 Salt Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Salt Creek's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Salt Creek
Each reading below is measured for Salt Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSalt Creek runs about 184 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
MeasuredSalt Creek 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 Salt Creek is in
Salt Creek sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Salt Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pueblo County.
What Grows in Salt Creek
Every plant below cleared Salt Creek's own zone 6a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Salt Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — 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 Salt Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Salt Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Goodyear Auto Service Ctr #8171Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2869Brownfields · 2000 ft
- CST Metro LLC DBA Corner Store #1723Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Saint Charles Mesa WaterUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Loaf N Jug #75Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Roselawn Cemetery AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- AMERICAN IRON & METAL PUEBLOBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Toms Trash Barrels IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Clinton KalbUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Cliff Brice StationsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HARSO HECKETT MULTISERV PLANT 67Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- GRUMA CORP. DBA MISSION FOODS CORPToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Salt Creek'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 Salt Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Salt Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Salt Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Salt Creek, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 39 sites within ~10 miles of Salt Creek. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Salt Creek
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 Salt Creek average
Your land is one point inside Salt Creek
Everything above resolves to Salt Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 276 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 Salt Creek Average
Salt Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Salt Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Salt Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Salt Creek's scale: Apr 16 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Salt Creek's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Salt Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Salt Creek, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Salt Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Salt Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Salt Creek average
How we know this about Salt Creek
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 Salt Creek’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 Salt Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Salt Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Creek typically lands around Apr 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 May 7.
When is the first frost in Salt Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Salt Creek typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Salt Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Salt Creek sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 16 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 7 to Oct 3, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Salt Creek?
The federal record around Salt Creek is a meaningful one — 603 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (343), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Salt Creek?
From about Sep 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Salt Creek's scale — its 6a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Salt Creek'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 Salt Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Salt Creek's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 276 acres it covers and 603 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Salt Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Salt Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 16 and Oct 17 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 603 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Salt Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Salt Creek's boundary and the 276 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Salt Creek's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Salt Creek's 276 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pueblo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pueblo 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 Pueblo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Salt Creek's 276 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Salt Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 276 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Salt Creek-wide figureread your own land →