Snowmass Village, 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.
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 Snowmass Village, 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 Snowmass Village 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 Snowmass Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Snowmass Village — the short answer
Snowmass Village, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 134 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~134
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 Snowmass Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Snowmass Village's 134-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Snowmass Village
Each reading below is measured for Snowmass Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSnowmass Village runs about 134 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
MeasuredSnowmass Village 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 Snowmass Village is in
Snowmass Village sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Snowmass Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pitkin County.
What Grows in Snowmass Village
Every plant below cleared Snowmass Village's own zone 5b and its 134-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Snowmass Village?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 30 — 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 Snowmass Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Snowmass Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNOWMASS VILLAGE WSDPFAS · 1300 ft
- Snowmass Village Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Snowmass Wildcat Fire Protection DistUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Snowmass Resort ConocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ANDERSON RANCH ARTS CENTERBrownfields · 2500 ft
- ASPEN SKIING COMPANY LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Town Of Snowmass VillageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Sam's Knob Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Sam's Knob RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Wood Run Pump StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Snowmass Vehicle Maintenance FacUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Snowmass Central OfficeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Snowmass Village'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 Snowmass Village.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Snowmass Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Snowmass Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Snowmass Village, Mining runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Snowmass Village. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Snowmass Village
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 Snowmass Village average
Your land is one point inside Snowmass Village
Everything above resolves to Snowmass Village as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 Snowmass Village Average
Snowmass Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Snowmass Village
- ●One soil character for all of Snowmass Village
- ●Frost dates read at Snowmass Village's scale: May 19 to Sep 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Snowmass Village's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Snowmass Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Snowmass Village, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Snowmass Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Snowmass Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Snowmass Village average
How we know this about Snowmass Village
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 Snowmass Village’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 Snowmass Village
When does frost risk typically end in Snowmass Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Snowmass Village typically lands around May 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Snowmass Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Snowmass Village typically arrives around Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 16, so the watching starts about Aug 31 — about 134 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Snowmass Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Snowmass Village sees about 134 frost-free days — roughly May 19 through Sep 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 9 to Sep 16, about 99 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Snowmass Village?
The federal record around Snowmass Village runs heavier than most — 247 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (134), the nearest PFAS record about 0.3 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 Snowmass Village?
With about 134 frost-free days between hard freezes, Snowmass Village 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 162 to 190 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Snowmass Village's scale — its 5b band and its 134-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Snowmass Village'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 Snowmass Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Snowmass Village's own scale — its own ~134-day season between 28°F freezes, the 17,787 acres it covers and 247 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Snowmass Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Snowmass Village's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 19 and Sep 30 and the ~134-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 247 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Snowmass Village, the closest PFAS record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Snowmass Village's boundary and the 17,787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~134-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Snowmass Village's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Snowmass Village's 17,787 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pitkin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pitkin 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 Pitkin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Snowmass Village's 17,787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Snowmass Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 17,787 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.3 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 Snowmass Village-wide figureread your own land →
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