Valmont, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Valmont, 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 Valmont 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 Valmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valmont — the short answer
Valmont, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 165 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 165 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 Valmont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valmont's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valmont
Each reading below is measured for Valmont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValmont runs about 181 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
MeasuredValmont 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 Valmont is in
Valmont sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Valmont's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Boulder County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Valmont
Every plant below cleared Valmont's own zone 6a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valmont?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Valmont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valmont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Boulder Ready-Mix ConcreteUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BOULDER READY MIX CONCRETE INCToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- Keeter Trucking IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SAE CIRCUITS COLORADO INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- COMPLEX TOOLING & MOLDING INCBrownfields · 2300 ft
- LAFARGE WEST INC VALMONT PLANTBrownfields · 2300 ft
- LAFARGE WEST INC VALMONT PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Via Mobility ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Western Disposal IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PUBLIC SERVICE CO - BOULDER SERVICE CNTRBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- George E SawhillUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Vacant PropertyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valmont'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 Valmont.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valmont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valmont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valmont, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Valmont. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Valmont
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 Valmont average
Your land is one point inside Valmont
Everything above resolves to Valmont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 165 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 Valmont Average
Valmont Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Valmont
- ●One soil character for all of Valmont
- ●Frost dates read at Valmont's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valmont's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valmont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valmont, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valmont averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valmont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valmont average
How we know this about Valmont
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 Valmont’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 Valmont
When does frost risk typically end in Valmont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valmont typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Valmont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valmont typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valmont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valmont sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 4, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valmont?
The federal record around Valmont runs heavier than most — 1,002 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (386), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Valmont?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valmont's scale — its 6a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valmont'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 Valmont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valmont's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 165 acres it covers and 1,002 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valmont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valmont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 18 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,002 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valmont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valmont's boundary and the 165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Valmont 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 Valmont's 165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Boulder County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Boulder 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 Boulder County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valmont's 165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valmont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Valmont-wide figureread your own land →
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