Colorado Soil: What You Are Digging Into, and How to Improve It
Colorado’s benchmark soil is the Seitz series, an Alfisol built under old forest cover.
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.
When to Carve a Pumpkin in Colorado
Along Colorado’s Front Range, the mean first fall frost lands somewhere between September 30 and October 12, weeks before Halloween even shows up on the…
Growing Onions in Colorado: Which Varieties Actually Bulb
Denver sits at 39.83 degrees north, and on the longest day of the year the sun gives that spot 14 hours and 50 minutes of daylight.
Growing Apples in Colorado: Varieties, Timing and Frost Risk
A practical look at which apple varieties survive Colorado’s wide hardiness range, how to pair them for pollination, and how spring frost affects bloom timing.
Heating a Home in Colorado: What the Winter Actually Costs
Denver’s coldest-month average low sits at 18.4°F, and that single number shapes everything about heating a Colorado home: how long the furnace runs, how…
Gardening in Colorado: What the Season Actually Allows
Colorado gardening comes down to four hard variables: elevation that swings by thousands of feet within a single county, a frost-free window that can be…
The Colorado Lawn Care Calendar, Month by Month
A month-by-month lawn care calendar for Colorado, built around Denver’s freeze window and the trade-off between cool-season and warm-season grass choices.
Spider mites in Colorado: When It Shows Up and What Stops It
Spider mites become active in Colorado as early as April on the Western Slope and typically peak across the Front Range from late June through August…
Grasshoppers in Colorado: When It Shows Up and What Stops It
Grasshoppers show up across Colorado every summer, but the timing and severity depend on where you live.
Squash bug in Colorado: When It Shows Up and What Stops It
Squash bugs show up in Colorado gardens once soil temperatures hold steady in the 60s, which usually lands somewhere between late May and mid-June…