Canning at Altitude in Colorado: What Your Elevation Changes
Denver sits at 5,279 feet, where water boils somewhere between 201°F and 204°F instead of the 212°F most recipes assume.
Gardening in Colorado
Everything we have worked out for Colorado: what to plant and when, which varieties finish in time, the pests that actually turn up here, and the jobs that pay off month by month. We also cover the rest of the property, from lawns and soil to home care and energy, because a garden rarely stops at the vegetable bed.
The numbers first, because everything else follows from them. Measured at the weather station in Denver, the last spring freeze runs May 1 to May 11 and the first fall freeze runs September 30 to October 12, USDA zones 3b-7b, 3,401 growing degree days in the year.
Garlic does well: 30.4 weeks below 40 °F, comfortably past the six it needs to form a proper head.
Elsewhere on the property in Colorado: the pests that turn up here.
Figures from NOAA's 1991-2020 climate normals. A state is not one climate: elevation, a large lake or the coast can move these dates by two weeks either way, so check your own county with the extension service before you spend money.
The Best Grass Seed for Colorado Lawns
Colorado’s transition-zone climate means cool-season and warm-season grass seed each trade summer toughness for months of dormant brown lawn across the Front Range.
Firewood in Colorado: Which Woods Your Winter Actually Needs
Colorado winters get cold enough that firewood stops being decor and becomes a heating plan.
Watering a Garden in Colorado: How Much, How Often, and the Local Rules
Colorado doesn’t get watering restrictions because of habit or paranoia. It gets them because the state runs hot, dry, and increasingly crowded, and…
Colorado Planting Calendar: When to Sow and Plant, Frost Dates Included
Colorado’s frost dates run from early May to early October near Denver, with mountain and western-slope gardens working on a shorter, later calendar.
Flowers That Actually Thrive in Colorado, and the Ones That Struggle
A rundown of which flowers handle Colorado’s cold winters and dry summer heat, and which ones struggle or need extra help to survive.
Planting Spring Bulbs in Colorado: What Will Come Back, and What Will Not
Colorado’s high, dry winters are exactly what spring bulbs are built for. The state’s average coldest-month low of 18.4°F comfortably clears what tulips…
When to Plant Onions in Colorado
Colorado onion growers plant in late winter to early spring, not fall. At Denver’s latitude of 39.83°N, the longest day of the year delivers 14 hours and…
The Best Onion Varieties for Colorado
At Colorado’s reference latitude of 39.83 degrees north, the longest day of the year delivers 14 hours and 50 minutes of daylight.
The Best Apple Varieties for Colorado
Colorado’s short bloom-to-frost window and cold winter lows decide which apple varieties can set fruit here, not the variety’s name.