Southern Ute, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Southern Ute, 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 Southern Ute 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 Southern Ute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Southern Ute — the short answer
Southern Ute, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- 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 6a is Southern Ute's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Southern Ute's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Southern Ute
Each reading below is measured for Southern Ute itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouthern Ute runs about 156 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
MeasuredSouthern Ute 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 Southern Ute is in
Southern Ute sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Southern Ute's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: La Plata County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Southern Ute
Every plant below cleared Southern Ute's own zone 6a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Southern Ute?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — 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 Southern Ute
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Southern Ute. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NB03300728DAB DH 1 DRILL LINE 4Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- NB03200709DAA HOLE 1 LINE 5 PINE RIVER 186Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #11666Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- Country MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- DUBS AUTO BODY INC / DUBLIN WILMERBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- Dist Iii Maintenance ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Ignacio TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Ignacio_41Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Ignacio Field District YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- WILLIAMS FIELD SVCS IGNACIO FIBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- DUBS AUTO GARAGEBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- SundanceUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Southern Ute'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 Southern Ute.
Total Sites
81
within ~10 miles of Southern Ute
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Southern Ute
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Southern Ute
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Southern Ute, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 54 sites within ~10 miles of Southern Ute. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Southern Ute
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 Southern Ute average
Your land is one point inside Southern Ute
Everything above resolves to Southern Ute 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 Southern Ute Average
Southern Ute Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Southern Ute
- ●One soil character for all of Southern Ute
- ●Frost dates read at Southern Ute's scale: May 7 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Southern Ute's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Southern Ute
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Southern Ute, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Southern Ute averages can't show:
We read public map data around Southern Ute — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Southern Ute average
How we know this about Southern Ute
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 Southern Ute’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 Southern Ute
When does frost risk typically end in Southern Ute?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Southern Ute typically lands around May 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Southern Ute?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Southern Ute typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Southern Ute?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Southern Ute sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 7 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 28 to Sep 26, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Southern Ute?
The federal record around Southern Ute shows 81 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (54), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Southern Ute?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Southern Ute's scale — its 6a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Southern Ute'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 Southern Ute’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Southern Ute's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,214 acres it covers and 81 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Southern Ute's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Southern Ute's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 7 and Oct 10 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 81 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Southern Ute, the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Southern Ute's boundary and the 10,214 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Southern Ute sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Southern Ute's 10,214 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom La Plata County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom La Plata 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 La Plata County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Southern Ute's 10,214 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Southern Ute you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,214 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.9 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 Southern Ute-wide figureread your own land →
More in Colorado
Growing region