Candy Kitchen, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Candy Kitchen, 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 Candy Kitchen 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 Candy Kitchen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Candy Kitchen — the short answer
Candy Kitchen, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 148 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~148
- 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 5b is Candy Kitchen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Candy Kitchen's 148-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Candy Kitchen
Each reading below is measured for Candy Kitchen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCandy Kitchen 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
MeasuredCandy Kitchen 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 Candy Kitchen is in
Candy Kitchen sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Candy Kitchen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in Candy Kitchen
Every plant below cleared Candy Kitchen'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 Candy Kitchen?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Candy Kitchen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Candy Kitchen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 09N.16W.34.412BNitrate · 3.9 mi
- 09N.16W.34.412Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 07N.16W.10.111Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- 08N.15W.27.342Nitrate · 4.8 mi
- 07N.15W.19.200Nitrate · 6.3 mi
- 07N.16W.21.300Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- 9N.15W.22 RAMAH NO. 3 NAVAJO TRIBENitrate · 7.7 mi
- 08N.14W.17.314Nitrate · 8.9 mi
Measured from Candy Kitchen'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 Candy Kitchen.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Candy Kitchen
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
16 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Candy Kitchen
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Candy Kitchen
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 Candy Kitchen average
Your land is one point inside Candy Kitchen
Everything above resolves to Candy Kitchen 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 Candy Kitchen Average
Candy Kitchen Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Candy Kitchen
- ●One soil character for all of Candy Kitchen
- ●Frost dates read at Candy Kitchen's scale: May 15 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Candy Kitchen's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Candy Kitchen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Candy Kitchen, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Candy Kitchen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Candy Kitchen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Candy Kitchen average
How we know this about Candy Kitchen
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 Candy Kitchen’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 Candy Kitchen
When does frost risk typically end in Candy Kitchen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Candy Kitchen typically lands around May 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Candy Kitchen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Candy Kitchen typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 148 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Candy Kitchen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Candy Kitchen sees about 148 frost-free days — roughly May 15 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 5 to Sep 26, about 113 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Candy Kitchen?
The federal record around Candy Kitchen is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Candy Kitchen?
With about 148 frost-free days between hard freezes, Candy Kitchen 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 15 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Candy Kitchen's scale — its 5b band and its 148-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Candy Kitchen'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 Candy Kitchen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Candy Kitchen's own scale — its own ~148-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,311 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Candy Kitchen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Candy Kitchen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 15 and Oct 10 and the ~148-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Candy Kitchen, the closest Nitrate record about 3.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Candy Kitchen's boundary and the 8,311 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 Candy Kitchen'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 Candy Kitchen's 8,311 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Candy Kitchen's 8,311 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Candy Kitchen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,311 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.9 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 Candy Kitchen-wide figureread your own land →