Sedalia, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sedalia, 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 Sedalia 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 Sedalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sedalia — the short answer
Sedalia, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 168 days between hard freezes, across 872 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~168
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 872 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 Sedalia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sedalia's 168-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sedalia
Each reading below is measured for Sedalia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSedalia runs about 168 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
MeasuredSedalia 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 Sedalia is in
Sedalia sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sedalia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Douglas County.
What Grows in Sedalia
Every plant below cleared Sedalia's own zone 5b and its 168-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sedalia?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Sedalia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sedalia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Proto ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Indian Creek Work CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Sedalia ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Douglas Rd & Bridge GreenlandUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Deckers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lake Cheesman ReservoirUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Douglas County SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Douglas County Road And Bridge SatelliteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Intermountain Rural Electric AssociationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CDOT SedaliaUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PORE WATER AT 06709000Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SC00706813CDC USGS 392607104572001Nitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sedalia'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 Sedalia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sedalia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sedalia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sedalia, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Sedalia. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Sedalia
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 Sedalia average
Your land is one point inside Sedalia
Everything above resolves to Sedalia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 872 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 Sedalia Average
Sedalia Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Sedalia
- ●One soil character for all of Sedalia
- ●Frost dates read at Sedalia's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sedalia's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sedalia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sedalia, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sedalia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sedalia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sedalia average
How we know this about Sedalia
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 Sedalia’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 Sedalia
When does frost risk typically end in Sedalia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sedalia typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Sedalia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sedalia typically arrives around Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 30, so the watching starts about Sep 14 — about 168 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sedalia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sedalia sees about 168 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 30, about 133 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sedalia?
The federal record around Sedalia is a meaningful one — 545 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (217), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Sedalia?
From about Sep 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sedalia's scale — its 5b band and its 168-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sedalia'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 Sedalia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sedalia's own scale — its own ~168-day season between 28°F freezes, the 872 acres it covers and 545 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sedalia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sedalia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 14 and the ~168-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 545 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sedalia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sedalia's boundary and the 872 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~168-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sedalia's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sedalia's 872 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Douglas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Douglas 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 Douglas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sedalia's 872 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sedalia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 872 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 Sedalia-wide figureread your own land →