Arroyo Seco, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Arroyo Seco, 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 Seco 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 Seco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arroyo Seco — the short answer
Arroyo Seco, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 5b is Arroyo Seco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arroyo Seco's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arroyo Seco
Each reading below is measured for Arroyo Seco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArroyo Seco runs about 148 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredArroyo Seco sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Seco is in
Arroyo Seco sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Arroyo Seco's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taos County.
What Grows in Arroyo Seco
Every plant below cleared Arroyo Seco's own zone 5b and its 148-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arroyo Seco?
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 Apr 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Arroyo Seco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arroyo Seco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 26N.13E.04.323Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- FORMER EL SALTO LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 26N.13E.04.113Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- JARAMILLO EDMUNDO AUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MARTINEZ LEVINIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ARROYO SECO GENERAL MERCHANDISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RAINBOW COLOR AND PREPRESSBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- MOUNTAIN VIEW GROCERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- VALDEZ ARTHUR AUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- GIANT 377Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 26N.12E.26.234Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- SIERRA VISTA TEXACOBrownfields · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arroyo Seco'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 Seco.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Seco
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Seco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arroyo Seco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arroyo Seco, Mining runs higher than the national average — 9 sites within ~10 miles of Arroyo Seco. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Arroyo Seco
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 Seco average
Your land is one point inside Arroyo Seco
Everything above resolves to Arroyo Seco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Seco Average
Arroyo Seco Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Arroyo Seco
- ●One soil character for all of Arroyo Seco
- ●Frost dates read at Arroyo Seco's scale: May 11 to Oct 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arroyo Seco's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arroyo Seco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arroyo Seco, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arroyo Seco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arroyo Seco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arroyo Seco average
How we know this about Arroyo Seco
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 Seco’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 Seco
When does frost risk typically end in Arroyo Seco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arroyo Seco typically lands around May 11, 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 Jun 1.
When is the first frost in Arroyo Seco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arroyo Seco typically arrives around Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 22, so the watching starts about Sep 6 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arroyo Seco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arroyo Seco sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 11 through Oct 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 1 to Sep 22, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arroyo Seco?
The federal record around Arroyo Seco is a meaningful one — 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 gardeners stretch the season in Arroyo Seco?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Arroyo Seco rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 176 to 204 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 11 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Arroyo Seco's scale — its 5b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arroyo Seco'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 Seco’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arroyo Seco's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,369 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arroyo Seco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arroyo Seco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 11 and Oct 6 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arroyo Seco, the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arroyo Seco's boundary and the 4,369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~148-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arroyo Seco's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arroyo Seco's 4,369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taos 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 Taos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arroyo Seco's 4,369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arroyo Seco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.0 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 Seco-wide figureread your own land →