Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Arroyo Hondo, 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 Arroyo Hondo 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 Arroyo Hondo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arroyo Hondo — the short answer
Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 189 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~189
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 6b is Arroyo Hondo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arroyo Hondo's 189-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arroyo Hondo
Each reading below is measured for Arroyo Hondo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArroyo Hondo runs about 189 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
MeasuredArroyo Hondo sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Arroyo Hondo is in
Arroyo Hondo sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Arroyo Hondo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Fe County.
What Grows in Arroyo Hondo
Every plant below cleared Arroyo Hondo's own zone 6b and its 189-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arroyo Hondo?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Arroyo Hondo
Survey cells within 31 miles of Arroyo Hondo checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 448 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Arroyo Hondo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arroyo Hondo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEBASTIAN DE VARGAS GRANTNitrate · 1.2 mi
- ARROYO HONDO GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SUNRISE GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CHRISTUS ST. VINCENT PHYSICIANS MEDICAL CENTER (PMC)Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- CVS PHYSICIAN MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- ARK VETERINARY HOSPITAL ASSOCIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- VETERINARY CANCER CARE, P.CBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- VETERINARY EMERGENCY & SPECIALTY CENTERS, LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- ESOTERIX GENETIC LABORATORIES LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- GIANT 375Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 16N.09E.01.433Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- STATE BEER DISTRIBUTORS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arroyo Hondo'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 Arroyo Hondo.
Total Sites
619
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Hondo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Hondo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Hondo
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Arroyo Hondo
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 Arroyo Hondo average
Your land is one point inside Arroyo Hondo
Everything above resolves to Arroyo Hondo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Arroyo Hondo Average
Arroyo Hondo Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Arroyo Hondo
- ●One soil character for all of Arroyo Hondo
- ●Frost dates read at Arroyo Hondo's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arroyo Hondo's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arroyo Hondo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arroyo Hondo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arroyo Hondo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arroyo Hondo average
How we know this about Arroyo Hondo
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 Arroyo Hondo’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 Arroyo Hondo
When does frost risk typically end in Arroyo Hondo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arroyo Hondo typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Arroyo Hondo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arroyo Hondo typically arrives around Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 12, so the watching starts about Sep 26 — about 189 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arroyo Hondo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arroyo Hondo sees about 189 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 12, about 154 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arroyo Hondo?
The federal record around Arroyo Hondo is a meaningful one — 619 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (236), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Arroyo Hondo?
From about Sep 26 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arroyo Hondo's scale — its 6b band and its 189-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arroyo Hondo'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 Arroyo Hondo’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Arroyo Hondo's own scale — its own ~189-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,031 acres it covers and 619 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arroyo Hondo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arroyo Hondo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 26 and the ~189-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 619 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arroyo Hondo, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arroyo Hondo's boundary and the 2,031 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~189-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arroyo Hondo's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Arroyo Hondo checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arroyo Hondo's 2,031 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe County
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arroyo Hondo's 2,031 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arroyo Hondo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,031 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Arroyo Hondo-wide figureread your own land →