De Baca County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
De Baca County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across De Baca County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 De Baca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
De Baca County — the short answer
De Baca County, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 216 days between hard freezes, across 1.5M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~216
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 1.5M acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 7a is De Baca County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against De Baca County's 216-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in De Baca County
Across a year, De Baca County accumulates about 4,048 growing degree days above 50°F, about 875 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 23 of New Mexico’s 33 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 2,227 hours below 45°F. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in De Baca County
Across De Baca County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Berwolf, Chispa, and Holloman are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across De Baca County
Berwolf is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Chispa (11%) and Holloman (8%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in De Baca County
Each reading below is measured for De Baca County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across De Baca County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across De Baca County runs about pH 7.9–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredDe Baca County runs about 216 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
MeasuredDe Baca County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 De Baca County is in
De Baca County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in De Baca County
We scored all 1,086 plants against De Baca County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 216-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile.
Is it too late to plant in De Baca County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in De Baca County
USGS estimates 9,013 lb of 2,4-d on De Baca County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (4,574 lb) and Glyphosate (1,673 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across De Baca County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across De Baca County — 85 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across De Baca County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near De Baca County
Closest first, across De Baca County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 02N.25E.13.311230Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 01N.25E.09.112423Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- FAMILY AUTO AND DIESELUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- 02N.26E.29.221111Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- 01N.26E.18.13113Nitrate · 8.1 mi
- 02N.26E.28.122Nitrate · 8.7 mi
- 02N.26E.16.312334Nitrate · 8.7 mi
- 01N.26E.04.23311Nitrate · 9.0 mi
- CIRCLE K 1439Underground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- 03N.25E.16.43STEELRANCHNitrate · 9.6 mi
- 01S.24E.13.SOUTH BAILYNitrate · 9.9 mi
- 02N.26E.23.241123Nitrate · 10.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from De Baca County'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 De Baca County.
Total Sites
85
across De Baca County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across De Baca County
Severity Distribution
across De Baca County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around De Baca County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 64 sites across De Baca County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 De Baca County
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 De Baca County average
Your land is one point inside De Baca County
Everything above resolves to De Baca County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 1.5M 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the De Baca County Average
De Baca County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across De Baca County
- ●One soil character for all of De Baca County
- ●Frost dates read at De Baca County's scale: Apr 2 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not De Baca County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in De Baca County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in De Baca County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that De Baca County averages can't show:
We read public map data around De Baca County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the De Baca County average
How we know this about De Baca County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where De Baca County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about De Baca County
When does frost risk typically end in De Baca County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in De Baca County typically lands around Apr 2, 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 Apr 23.
How long is the growing season in De Baca County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, De Baca County sees about 216 frost-free days — roughly Apr 2 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 23 to Oct 21, about 181 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in De Baca County?
The federal record around De Baca County is a meaningful one — 85 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (64), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.1 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.
Everything above is measured at De Baca County's scale — its 7a band and its 216-day season. Your yard writes its own version of De Baca County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads New Mexico's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at De Baca County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at De Baca County's own scale — its own ~216-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 85 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- De Baca County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- De Baca County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~216-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in De Baca CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 85 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- De Baca County's boundary and the 1,486,787 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~216-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- De Baca County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto De Baca County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every New Mexico grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom New Mexico
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across De Baca County — the ~216 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among De Baca County's 1,486,787 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 85 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over De Baca Countyread your own land →