Bluewater, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Bluewater, 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 Bluewater 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 Bluewater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bluewater — the short answer
Bluewater, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 160 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~160
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 6a is Bluewater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bluewater's 160-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bluewater
Each reading below is measured for Bluewater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBluewater runs about 160 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
MeasuredBluewater sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Bluewater is in
Bluewater sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Bluewater's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McKinley County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bluewater
Every plant below cleared Bluewater's own zone 6a and its 160-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bluewater?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Bluewater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bluewater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 13N.13W.28.131Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 13N.13W.22.1333Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- SILVAS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- NMSHD THOREAUUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- KACHINA TRADERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- HAWKS NESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CUNO RONALDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CHEVRON 75526Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- CHACO LP GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- AT SF RAILWAY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TRANSWESTERN PIPELINE STATION 5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- THUNDERBIRD GROCERY AND GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bluewater'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 Bluewater.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bluewater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bluewater
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bluewater, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bluewater — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (66 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).
Check your specific parcel in Bluewater
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 Bluewater average
Your land is one point inside Bluewater
Everything above resolves to Bluewater as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Bluewater Average
Bluewater Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Bluewater
- ●One soil character for all of Bluewater
- ●Frost dates read at Bluewater's scale: May 6 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bluewater's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bluewater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bluewater, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bluewater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bluewater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bluewater average
How we know this about Bluewater
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 Bluewater’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 Bluewater
When does frost risk typically end in Bluewater?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bluewater typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Bluewater?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bluewater typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 160 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bluewater?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bluewater sees about 160 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 29, about 125 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bluewater?
The federal record around Bluewater is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (66), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Bluewater?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bluewater's scale — its 6a band and its 160-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bluewater'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 Bluewater’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bluewater's own scale — its own ~160-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,888 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bluewater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bluewater's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 13 and the ~160-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bluewater, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bluewater's boundary and the 7,888 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~160-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bluewater sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bluewater's 7,888 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKinley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKinley 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 McKinley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bluewater's 7,888 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bluewater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,888 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Bluewater-wide figureread your own land →