Chaparral, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chaparral, 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 Chaparral 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 Chaparral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chaparral — the short answer
Chaparral, New Mexico: USDA zone 8b, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 38K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 38K 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 8b is Chaparral's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chaparral's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chaparral
Each reading below is measured for Chaparral itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChaparral runs about 266 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredChaparral sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Chaparral is in
Chaparral sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Chaparral's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doña Ana County.
What Grows in Chaparral
Every plant below cleared Chaparral's own zone 8b and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Chaparral?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Chaparral
Survey cells within 31 miles of Chaparral checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 631 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Chaparral
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chaparral. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAPARRAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUN COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HENRY'S AUTO GARAGEBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- STIRES FINA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CHAPARRAL GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 26S.05E.15.112Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- MR. BATTERYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- 26S.05E.22.133Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 26S.05E.24.200Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 26S.05E.09.421Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 26S.05E.22.333Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- STIRES MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chaparral'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 Chaparral.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Chaparral
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chaparral
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chaparral
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Chaparral, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 126 sites within ~10 miles of Chaparral. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Chaparral
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 Chaparral average
Your land is one point inside Chaparral
Everything above resolves to Chaparral as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 38K 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 Chaparral Average
Chaparral Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Chaparral
- ●One soil character for all of Chaparral
- ●Frost dates read at Chaparral's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chaparral's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chaparral
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chaparral, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chaparral averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chaparral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chaparral average
How we know this about Chaparral
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 Chaparral’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 Chaparral
When does frost risk typically end in Chaparral?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chaparral typically lands around Feb 26, 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 Mar 19.
When is the first frost in Chaparral?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chaparral typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chaparral?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chaparral sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 5, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chaparral?
The federal record around Chaparral is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (126), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Chaparral?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chaparral's scale — its 8b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chaparral'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 Chaparral’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Chaparral's own scale — its own ~266-day season between 28°F freezes, the 37,801 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chaparral's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Chaparral's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 26 and Nov 19 and the ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chaparral, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chaparral's boundary and the 37,801 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Chaparral's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Chaparral 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 Chaparral's 37,801 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doña Ana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doña Ana 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 Doña Ana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chaparral's 37,801 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chaparral you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 37,801 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Chaparral-wide figureread your own land →
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