Watkins, Colorado, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Watkins, 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 Watkins 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 Watkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Watkins — the short answer
Watkins, Colorado: USDA zone 6a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 16K 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 Watkins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Watkins's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Watkins
Each reading below is measured for Watkins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWatkins runs about 180 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
MeasuredWatkins 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 Watkins is in
Watkins sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Watkins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Arapahoe County.
What Grows in Watkins
Every plant below cleared Watkins's own zone 6a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's Colorado profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Watkins?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Watkins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Watkins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AURORA CITY OFPFAS · 1.3 mi
- SC00406423CDB ARAPMAS16Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- SC00406423ABD DENMAS02Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Interstate Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- SC00406402CCB AGLUS22Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- Sunmart 525Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Interstate Service StaUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Former One Stop ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- AppOgee KazmiraUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Diamond Shamrock 4054Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- O E ABrownfields · 4.1 mi
- O E AToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Watkins'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 Watkins.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Watkins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Watkins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Watkins, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Watkins — Nitrate (194 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Watkins
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 Watkins average
Your land is one point inside Watkins
Everything above resolves to Watkins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Watkins Average
Watkins Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Watkins
- ●One soil character for all of Watkins
- ●Frost dates read at Watkins's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Watkins's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Watkins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Watkins, Colorado — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Watkins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Watkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Watkins average
How we know this about Watkins
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 Watkins’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 Watkins
When does frost risk typically end in Watkins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Watkins typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Watkins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Watkins typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Watkins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Watkins sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 6, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Watkins?
The federal record around Watkins is a meaningful one — 309 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (194), the nearest PFAS record about 1.3 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Watkins?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Watkins's scale — its 6a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Watkins'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 Watkins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Watkins's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 15,838 acres it covers and 309 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Watkins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Watkins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 20 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 309 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Watkins, the closest PFAS record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Watkins's boundary and the 15,838 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Watkins's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Watkins's 15,838 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Arapahoe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Arapahoe 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 Arapahoe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Watkins's 15,838 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Watkins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,838 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.3 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 Watkins-wide figureread your own land →