Vail, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Vail, 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 Vail 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 Vail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vail — the short answer
Vail, Colorado: USDA zone 5a, about 119 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~119
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Vail's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vail's 119-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vail
Each reading below is measured for Vail itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVail runs about 119 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
MeasuredVail 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 Vail is in
Vail sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Vail's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eagle County.
What Grows in Vail
Every plant below cleared Vail's own zone 5a and its 119-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vail?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Vail
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vail. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ski Patrol HeadquartersUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SC00508008BCD-GERALD R FORD PARKNitrate · 1400 ft
- TOWN OF VAILBrownfields · 2400 ft
- Vail Golf Course Maintenance FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Town Of VailUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Vail Associates IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SC00508009AAC-VAIL GOLF COURSENitrate · 0.6 mi
- VAIL ASSOC & VAIL MOUNTAIN SKI AREABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Vail Mountain Top Chair 4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Vail Vista Bahn Chair 16Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Vail Sunup Chair 17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Vail Sourdough Chair 14Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vail'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 Vail.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vail
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vail
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vail, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Vail — PFAS (3 sites) and Mining (15 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
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 irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Vail
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 Vail average
Your land is one point inside Vail
Everything above resolves to Vail as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Vail Average
Vail Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Vail
- ●One soil character for all of Vail
- ●Frost dates read at Vail's scale: May 28 to Sep 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vail's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vail
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vail, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vail averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vail — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vail average
How we know this about Vail
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 Vail’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 Vail
When does frost risk typically end in Vail?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vail typically lands around May 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Vail?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vail typically arrives around Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 10, so the watching starts about Aug 25 — about 119 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vail?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vail sees about 119 frost-free days — roughly May 28 through Sep 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 18 to Sep 10, about 84 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vail?
The federal record around Vail runs heavier than most — 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vail?
With about 119 frost-free days between hard freezes, Vail 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 147 to 175 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 28 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Vail's scale — its 5a band and its 119-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vail'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 Vail’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vail's own scale — its own ~119-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,011 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vail's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vail's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 28 and Sep 24 and the ~119-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vail, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vail's boundary and the 3,011 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~119-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vail's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vail's 3,011 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eagle County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eagle 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 Eagle County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vail's 3,011 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vail you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,011 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Vail-wide figureread your own land →