Silver Cliff, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Silver Cliff, 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 Silver Cliff 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 Silver Cliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Silver Cliff — the short answer
Silver Cliff, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 136 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~136
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Silver Cliff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Silver Cliff's 136-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Silver Cliff
Each reading below is measured for Silver Cliff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSilver Cliff runs about 136 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
MeasuredSilver Cliff 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 Silver Cliff is in
Silver Cliff sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Silver Cliff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Custer County.
What Grows in Silver Cliff
Every plant below cleared Silver Cliff's own zone 5b and its 136-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Silver Cliff?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 28 — 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 Silver Cliff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Silver Cliff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Iron Mountain MineMining · 1.6 mi
- Round Mountain ProspectMining · 1.6 mi
- Dolly VardenMining · 1.8 mi
- Deceiver MineMining · 2.0 mi
- Racine Boy MineMining · 2.3 mi
- Peerless MineMining · 2.3 mi
- Geyser MineMining · 2.4 mi
- R & M ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Custer County School Dist C-1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Vanderbilt MineMining · 2.6 mi
- Elizabeth ProspectMining · 2.7 mi
- Democrat Hill depositMining · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Silver Cliff'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 Silver Cliff.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Silver Cliff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Silver Cliff
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Silver Cliff, Mining runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Silver Cliff. 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 Silver Cliff
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 Silver Cliff average
Your land is one point inside Silver Cliff
Everything above resolves to Silver Cliff as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Silver Cliff Average
Silver Cliff Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Silver Cliff
- ●One soil character for all of Silver Cliff
- ●Frost dates read at Silver Cliff's scale: May 15 to Sep 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Silver Cliff's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Silver Cliff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Silver Cliff, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Silver Cliff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Silver Cliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Silver Cliff average
How we know this about Silver Cliff
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 Silver Cliff’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 Silver Cliff
When does frost risk typically end in Silver Cliff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Cliff typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Silver Cliff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Silver Cliff typically arrives around Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 14, so the watching starts about Aug 29 — about 136 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Silver Cliff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Silver Cliff sees about 136 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Sep 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 14, about 101 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Silver Cliff?
The federal record around Silver Cliff runs heavier than most — 88 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (72), the nearest Mining record about 1.6 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 Silver Cliff?
With about 136 frost-free days between hard freezes, Silver Cliff 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 164 to 192 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Silver Cliff's scale — its 5b band and its 136-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Silver Cliff'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 Silver Cliff’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Silver Cliff's own scale — its own ~136-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,893 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Silver Cliff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Silver Cliff's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Sep 28 and the ~136-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Silver Cliff, the closest Mining record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Silver Cliff's boundary and the 9,893 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~136-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Silver Cliff's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Silver Cliff's 9,893 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Custer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Custer 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 Custer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Silver Cliff's 9,893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Silver Cliff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,893 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 1.6 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 Silver Cliff-wide figureread your own land →