Ward, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ward, 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 Ward 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 Ward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ward — the short answer
Ward, Colorado: USDA zone 5b, about 131 days between hard freezes, across 343 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~131
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 343 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 5b is Ward's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ward's 131-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ward
Each reading below is measured for Ward itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWard runs about 131 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
MeasuredWard sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Ward is in
Ward sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Ward's own centroid rather than borrowed from Boulder County.
What Grows in Ward
Every plant below cleared Ward's own zone 5b and its 131-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ward?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 27 — 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 Ward
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ward. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Ni-WotMining · 200 ft
- SB00107301DCDB SITE C04Nitrate · 1000 ft
- NevcoMining · 2100 ft
- MoonMining · 2100 ft
- Ideal No TwoMining · 2100 ft
- Smoky Gold UnitedMining · 2100 ft
- OccidentalMining · 2100 ft
- Brainard Lake PlantMining · 2100 ft
- Dew DropMining · 0.6 mi
- ModocMining · 0.7 mi
- New CaliforniaMining · 0.7 mi
- LEFT HAND CREEK DISCHARGESuperfund · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ward'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 Ward.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ward
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ward
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ward, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ward — Mining (115 sites) and Superfund (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ward
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 Ward average
Your land is one point inside Ward
Everything above resolves to Ward as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 343 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 Ward Average
Ward Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Ward
- ●One soil character for all of Ward
- ●Frost dates read at Ward's scale: May 19 to Sep 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ward's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ward
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ward, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ward averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ward — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ward average
How we know this about Ward
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 Ward’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 Ward
When does frost risk typically end in Ward?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ward typically lands around May 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Ward?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ward typically arrives around Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 13, so the watching starts about Aug 28 — about 131 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ward?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ward sees about 131 frost-free days — roughly May 19 through Sep 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 9 to Sep 13, about 96 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ward?
The federal record around Ward runs heavier than most — 230 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (115), the nearest Mining 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 gardeners stretch the season in Ward?
With about 131 frost-free days between hard freezes, Ward 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 159 to 187 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 19 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Ward's scale — its 5b band and its 131-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ward'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 Ward’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ward's own scale — its own ~131-day season between 28°F freezes, the 343 acres it covers and 230 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ward's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ward's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 19 and Sep 27 and the ~131-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 230 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ward, the closest Mining record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ward's boundary and the 343 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~131-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ward's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ward's 343 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 Ward's 343 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ward you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 343 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining 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 Ward-wide figureread your own land →
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