Twin Lakes, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Twin Lakes, 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 Twin Lakes 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 Twin Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Twin Lakes — the short answer
Twin Lakes, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 114 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~114
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 5a is Twin Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Twin Lakes's 114-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Twin Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Twin Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTwin Lakes runs about 114 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
MeasuredTwin Lakes sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Twin Lakes is in
Twin Lakes sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Twin Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Twin Lakes
Every plant below cleared Twin Lakes's own zone 5a and its 114-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Twin Lakes?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Twin Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Twin Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Twin Lakes Drilling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Mt Elbert LodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Twin Lakes O&M Building MTE Power PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Smith-Bullard MineMining · 2.0 mi
- CDOT Twin LakesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Tom ThumbMining · 2.5 mi
- UnknownMining · 2.9 mi
- Prospect MtnMining · 3.4 mi
- Rocky PointMining · 3.8 mi
- Practical Gold MiningMining · 3.8 mi
- KosmonMining · 3.8 mi
- Edna MayMining · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Twin Lakes'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 Twin Lakes.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Twin Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Twin Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Twin Lakes, Mining runs higher than the national average — 103 sites within ~10 miles of Twin Lakes. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Twin Lakes
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 Twin Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Twin Lakes
Everything above resolves to Twin Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Twin Lakes Average
Twin Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Twin Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Twin Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Twin Lakes's scale: May 30 to Sep 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Twin Lakes's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Twin Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Twin Lakes, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Twin Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Twin Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Twin Lakes average
How we know this about Twin Lakes
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 Twin Lakes’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 Twin Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Twin Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Twin Lakes typically lands around May 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Twin Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Twin Lakes typically arrives around Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 7, so the watching starts about Aug 22 — about 114 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Twin Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Twin Lakes sees about 114 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 7, about 79 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Twin Lakes?
The federal record around Twin Lakes runs heavier than most — 144 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Twin Lakes?
With about 114 frost-free days between hard freezes, Twin Lakes 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 142 to 170 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Twin Lakes's scale — its 5a band and its 114-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Twin Lakes'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 Twin Lakes’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Twin Lakes's own scale — its own ~114-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,310 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Twin Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Twin Lakes's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 21 and the ~114-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Twin Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Twin Lakes's boundary and the 4,310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~114-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Twin Lakes's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Twin Lakes's 4,310 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Twin Lakes's 4,310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Twin Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,310 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Twin Lakes-wide figureread your own land →