Stonegate, 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 Stonegate, 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 Stonegate 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 Stonegate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stonegate — the short answer
Stonegate, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Stonegate's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stonegate's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stonegate
Each reading below is measured for Stonegate itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStonegate runs about 172 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
MeasuredStonegate 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 Stonegate is in
Stonegate sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Stonegate's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Douglas County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Stonegate
Every plant below cleared Stonegate's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stonegate?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 16 — 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 Stonegate
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stonegate. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Circle K Store #2709893Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Twin Star Energy #515Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #10785Brownfields · 1900 ft
- CVS 10785 CO LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 7-Eleven #32923Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- KING SOOPERS 88Brownfields · 2600 ft
- SC0066617BCD SWQA-12Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- SC00606616CBD URLUS 13Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SC00606617DDDNitrate · 0.8 mi
- SC00606609AABNitrate · 0.9 mi
- Loaf N Jug #43Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SC00606608CBBNitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stonegate'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 Stonegate.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stonegate
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stonegate
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stonegate, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Stonegate. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Stonegate
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 Stonegate average
Your land is one point inside Stonegate
Everything above resolves to Stonegate as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Stonegate Average
Stonegate Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Stonegate
- ●One soil character for all of Stonegate
- ●Frost dates read at Stonegate's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stonegate's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stonegate
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stonegate, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stonegate averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stonegate — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stonegate average
How we know this about Stonegate
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 Stonegate’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 Stonegate
When does frost risk typically end in Stonegate?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stonegate typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Stonegate?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stonegate typically arrives around Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 2, so the watching starts about Sep 16 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stonegate?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stonegate sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 2, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stonegate?
The federal record around Stonegate runs heavier than most — 1,127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (424), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 I protect my plants from frost in Stonegate?
From about Sep 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stonegate's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stonegate'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 Stonegate’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stonegate's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,171 acres it covers and 1,127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stonegate's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stonegate's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 16 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stonegate, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stonegate's boundary and the 1,171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Stonegate sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stonegate's 1,171 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 Stonegate's 1,171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stonegate you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,171 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Stonegate-wide figureread your own land →