Eddy County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Eddy County lies within the Lower Pecos Valley (Roswell–Artesia–Carlsbad) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Eddy County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Eddy 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 Eddy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Eddy County — the short answer
Eddy County, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 2.7M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.7M 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 8a is Eddy County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eddy County's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Eddy County
Across a year, Eddy County accumulates about 5,333 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,160 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 31 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 1,557 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 Eddy County
Across Eddy County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Reagan, Ector, and Upton are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Eddy County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Eddy County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 10% excessively drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Reagan is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Ector (18%) and Upton (12%).
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 Eddy County
Each reading below is measured for Eddy 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 Eddy 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 Eddy County runs about pH 7.6, 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
MeasuredEddy County runs about 254 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
MeasuredEddy County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Eddy County is in
Eddy County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Chihuahuan Deserts (85%) and Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (9%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Eddy County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Eddy County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 254-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 Eddy County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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.
Documented around Eddy County
- monarch butterfly16 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Eddy County
USGS estimates 29,855 lb of Glyphosate on Eddy County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (14,491 lb) and Metolachlor-s (13,757 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 Eddy County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Eddy County — 823 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 27 Superfund sites (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 Eddy 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 Eddy County
Closest first, across Eddy County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21S.26E.17. WINDMILLNitrate · 1.1 mi
- 21S.26E.31Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 21S.26E.17.412Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 21S.26E.32.4Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 21S.26E.31.243Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- COMPRESSOR STATION 143Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- COMPRESSOR STATION 22Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- COMPRESSOR STATION 21Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 21S.26E.08Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 21S.26E.23 SWIGARTNitrate · 2.1 mi
- 21S.26E.23.13333Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- 21S.26E.23.31Nitrate · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eddy 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 Eddy County.
Total Sites
823
across Eddy County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
27 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Eddy County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eddy County, two things run higher than the national average across Eddy County — Superfund (27 sites) and Nitrate (378 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Eddy 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 Eddy County average
Your land is one point inside Eddy County
Everything above resolves to Eddy County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.7M 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 Eddy County Average
Eddy County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Eddy County
- ●One soil character for all of Eddy County
- ●Frost dates read at Eddy County's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eddy County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Eddy County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eddy County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eddy County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eddy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eddy County average
How we know this about Eddy 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 Eddy County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Eddy County
When does frost risk typically end in Eddy County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eddy County typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Eddy County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eddy County sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 4, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eddy County?
The federal record around Eddy County is a meaningful one — 823 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (378), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Eddy County's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eddy 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 Eddy County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Eddy County's own scale — its own ~254-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 823 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eddy County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eddy County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Eddy CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 823 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Eddy County's boundary and the 2,672,860 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Eddy County spans, Chihuahuan Deserts the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Eddy County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Eddy 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 Eddy County — the ~254 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 Eddy County's 2,672,860 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 823 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 Eddy Countyread your own land →