Buckhorn, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buckhorn, 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 Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buckhorn — the short answer
Buckhorn, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 211 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~211
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 7b is Buckhorn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buckhorn's 211-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buckhorn
Each reading below is measured for Buckhorn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBuckhorn runs about 211 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBuckhorn sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Buckhorn is in
Buckhorn sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Buckhorn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Buckhorn
Every plant below cleared Buckhorn's own zone 7b and its 211-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buckhorn?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Buckhorn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Buckhorn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 491 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Buckhorn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buckhorn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCKHORN TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 15S.18W.04.211Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 14S.18W.33.213Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- NMDOT CLIFF PATROL YARD 41 44Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 15S.17W.29.442Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 15S.17W.28.331Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- CLIFF TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- 15S.17W.27.111Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- HOLLIMON JTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- RIVERSIDE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- PACIFIC WESTERN LAND CO AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.1 mi
- CLIFF ELEMENTARY AND HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 8.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buckhorn'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 Buckhorn.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buckhorn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buckhorn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buckhorn, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Buckhorn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Buckhorn
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 Buckhorn average
Your land is one point inside Buckhorn
Everything above resolves to Buckhorn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Buckhorn Average
Buckhorn Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Buckhorn
- ●One soil character for all of Buckhorn
- ●Frost dates read at Buckhorn's scale: Apr 10 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buckhorn's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buckhorn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buckhorn, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buckhorn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buckhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buckhorn average
How we know this about Buckhorn
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 Buckhorn’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 Buckhorn
When does frost risk typically end in Buckhorn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhorn typically lands around Apr 10, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Buckhorn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhorn typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 211 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buckhorn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buckhorn sees about 211 frost-free days — roughly Apr 10 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 1 to Oct 24, about 176 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buckhorn?
The federal record around Buckhorn is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Buckhorn?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buckhorn's scale — its 7b band and its 211-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buckhorn'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 Buckhorn’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Buckhorn's own scale — its own ~211-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,967 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buckhorn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Buckhorn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 10 and Nov 7 and the ~211-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buckhorn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buckhorn's boundary and the 2,967 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~211-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Buckhorn's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Buckhorn 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 Buckhorn's 2,967 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buckhorn's 2,967 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buckhorn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,967 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Buckhorn-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoBuckhorn sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides