The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A long-season irrigated river valley, not dryland plains: fed by the Pecos and the Roswell Artesian Basin, Roswell runs 233 frost-free days (zone 7b) and Carlsbad–Artesia 254 (zone 8a) — roughly 40 more growing days than the High Plains just east, and a different watershed than any other captured New Mexico region. This is where the state grows pecans, cotton, chile and alfalfa on artesian water rather than rain. Among the crops suited to this profile: green chile, prickly pear, apache plume, and pecan. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) spans New Mexico.
Your yard isn't all of the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad).
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) spans USDA zones 7b-8a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — the short answer
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad): USDA zones 7b-8a, 233–254 frost-free days, in New Mexico.
- USDA zones
- 7b-8a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Frost-free season
- 233–254 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- Counties
- 2
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. Where a region publishes no measured season, no season figure is shown.
Hardiness Zone Range
What Grows in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
Plants matched to the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s USDA zones 7b-8a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in this region’s state, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)’s USDA zones 7b-8a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across two member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Aridisols, at 60% of mapped acres, followed by Mollisols (28%), Entisols (12%) and Alfisols (1%). The most extensive named soils are Ector, Reagan, and Upton.
91% of those acres are well drained, and another 4% excessively drained, 1% moderately well drained. Topsoil pH runs 7.6–8.2 between the lowest and the highest county on record.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Topsoil pH
7.6–8.2
Hydric soils
0%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Chaves County holds the most wetland ground here, at 0% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad). Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records91% of the mapped acres across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) are well drained — ground that drains quickly. That is area-weighted across all two of its mapped counties.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) runs pH 7.6–8.2 — alkaline in all two of them.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — and how to grow with it.
Across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s 2 counties the federal record holds 1,451 documented sites, mostly Nitrate (658), Underground Storage Tanks (530) and Brownfields (172). The heaviest single county is Eddy County, with 823.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 2 counties in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad), two things run higher than the national average across the 2 counties in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — Superfund (33 sites) and Nitrate (658 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
Everything above resolves to the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) as a whole — a footprint spanning USDA zones 7b-8a. Your parcel sits in exactly one of them. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) Average
Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b-8a, averaged across Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
- ●One soil character for all of Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s 7b-8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) average
How we know this about the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
What hardiness zone is the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)?
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) spans USDA hardiness zones 7b-8a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s counties mostly run 238 to 249 frost-free days, median 244 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 2 member counties). That 11-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 2 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)?
Across the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad), the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Mar 13 and Mar 20 (median Mar 16), and their first fall freeze between Nov 13 and Nov 16. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Apr 6, and elevation decides which end of a 7-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)?
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s conditions suit plants such as Green Chile, Prickly Pear, Apache Plume, Pecan, Pinon Pine. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) defined?
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) is defined here as a curated cluster of 2 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) cover?
The Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) spans New Mexico. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
High Plains, Middle Rio Grande / Albuquerque, Four Corners / San Juan Basin (Farmington), Taos & the Sangre de Cristo High Country, Northern New Mexico / Española Valley, and Hatch / Mesilla Valley share at least one state with the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad). Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)'s own scale — the zone 7b-8a band across its footprint, a median 244-day season across its 2 counties and 1,451 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 823 of them in Eddy County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 7b-8a aggregated across all 2 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 2 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 2 counties run 238 to 249 frost-free days, median 244NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 1,451 documented federal contamination records across its 2 counties, 823 of them in Eddy County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 60% Aridisols, topsoil pH 7.6–8.2, area-weighted across its 2 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — its state's curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 7b-8afrom New Mexico
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 11-day range your ground sits at — 238 days at one extreme, 249 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad)
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across New Mexico
A semi-arid shortgrass tableland of deep soils and big sky, where wind, low rainfall, and irrigation shape dryland wheat, sorghum, and resilient gardens.
New Mexico's high-desert river corridor along the Middle Rio Grande around Albuquerque — intense high-elevation sun, alkaline soils, and irrigation-fed gardens working a roughly 200-day frost-free season.
On the Colorado Plateau's high desert in New Mexico's far northwest — Farmington, Gallup, and Grants sit at roughly 4,900-6,500 ft, not the Rio Grande corridor. Expect a shorter, cooler season than central New Mexico: USDA zones 6a-7a and about 150-187 frost-free days, over alkaline plateau soils, with a deep Navajo and Puebloan dryland-farming heritage shaping what thrives here.
The coldest populated corner of New Mexico. Taos sits in USDA zone 5b with about 151 frost-free days — a full zone and roughly 40 days shorter than the zone 6a–7a Española Valley just to the south, and shorter still up in the mountain valleys of Angel Fire, Red River, Eagle Nest, and Mora. Gardening here at 7,000–8,500 ft means late-spring and early-fall frost risk, short-season variety selection, and cold-hardy perennials — much of it watered by centuries-old acequia ditch irrigation. This is high alpine-desert growing that the warmer, longer-season northern-NM page can't speak to.
Anchored on the Rio Grande–Rio Chama confluence in north-central New Mexico, the Española Valley spans Rio Arriba and Santa Fe counties, where USDA zones 6a to 7a and a 159-to-190-day frost-free window frame a high-desert, acequia-irrigated growing season.
The federally designated Mesilla Valley AVA (27 CFR §9.115, established 1985) follows the Rio Grande floodplain from the chile-growing village of Hatch through Doña Ana County, NM into El Paso County, TX — a Zone 8b corridor running a long 264-to-282-day frost-free season.