Colorado Springs, CO · zone 5b · ~139 frost-free days
When to plant a garden in Colorado Springs.
In Colorado Springs, the typical last spring frost lands around May 15 and the first fall frost around Oct 1, giving you about 139 frost-free days. Cool-season crops go out before the last frost; warm-season crops wait until after it.
The 2026 windows
Sow dates for Colorado Springs, keyed to your frost.
| Crop | Start indoors | Spring sow / set out | Fall sow |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tomato, slicing | Apr 10 to Jun 10 | May 22 to Jul 22 | — |
| Lettuce, leaf | — | Apr 7 to May 22 | Jul 18 to Sep 16 |
| Carrot | — | Apr 7 to May 10 | Jul 6 to Aug 1 |
| Bush Bean | — | May 15 to Jul 5 | Jun 17 to Jul 20 |
| Cucumber, slicing | — | May 22 to Aug 21 | May 31 to Jul 1 |
| Pepper, bell | Apr 19 to Jun 10 | May 31 to Jul 22 | — |
| Kale | Feb 24 to Mar 24 | Apr 7 to May 5 | Jul 1 to Aug 16 |
| Spinach | — | Mar 24 to May 5 | Jul 18 to Sep 5 |
Colorado Springs sits in Zone 5b, but two gardens in the same city can be a week or two apart. The planner works from your ZIP code's frost dates, not the zone, so the dates land right for your block, not the metro average.
Build your Colorado Springs garden plan.
Tell the free planner what you want to eat and who you're feeding. It returns plant counts, spacing, and frost-safe sow dates for ZIP 80903 in about 60 seconds.