Lea County, in New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Lea County lies within the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lea County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lea 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 Lea County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lea County — the short answer
Lea County, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 2.8M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.8M 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 Lea County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lea County's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lea County
Across a year, Lea County accumulates about 4,646 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,473 more than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 27 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 1,818 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 Lea County
Across Lea County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Kimbrough, Lea, and Pyote are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–7.8, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lea County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Lea County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 10% excessively drained.
Kimbrough is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Lea (10%) and Pyote (10%).
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 Lea County
Each reading below is measured for Lea 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 Lea 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 Lea County runs about pH 7.2–7.8, 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
MeasuredLea County runs about 238 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
MeasuredLea 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 Lea County is in
Lea County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (79%) and Chihuahuan Deserts (21%). 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 Lea County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lea County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 238-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 Lea 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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Lea County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lea County
USGS estimates 47,972 lb of Glyphosate on Lea County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (31,858 lb) and Metolachlor-s (29,041 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 Lea County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lea County — 737 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 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 Lea 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 Lea County
Closest first, across Lea County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAST VACUUM LIQUID RECOVERY PLANT/CO2 PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- JOULE DEMONSTRATION PLANTBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- AST WESTBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- BUCKEYE CO2 PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 5.7 mi
- CHEVRON BUCKEYE C02 PLANTBrownfields · 5.7 mi
- SPS - CUNNINGHAM GENERATING STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 6.6 mi
- SPS - CUNNINGHAM GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- HOBBS GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 7.6 mi
- TRIPLE J MHPPFAS · 8.5 mi
- MADDOX STATIONBrownfields · 8.6 mi
- NAVAJO REFINING COMPANY, LLC - LOVINGTON REFINERYBrownfields · 8.7 mi
- NAVAJO REFINING COMPANY, LLC - LOVINGTON REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 8.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lea 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 Lea County.
Total Sites
737
across Lea County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Lea County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lea 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 Lea County average
Your land is one point inside Lea County
Everything above resolves to Lea County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.8M 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 Lea County Average
Lea County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lea County
- ●One soil character for all of Lea County
- ●Frost dates read at Lea County's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lea County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lea County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lea County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lea County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lea County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lea County average
How we know this about Lea 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 Lea County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lea County
When does frost risk typically end in Lea County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lea County typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Lea County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lea County sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Nov 2, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lea County?
The federal record around Lea County is a meaningful one — 737 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (389), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.3 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 Lea County's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lea 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 Lea County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lea County's own scale — its own ~238-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 737 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lea County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lea County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lea CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 737 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 2.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lea County's boundary and the 2,810,591 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Lea County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lea County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lea 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 Lea County — the ~238 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 Lea County's 2,810,591 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 737 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 Lea Countyread your own land →