Sandoval 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, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Sandoval County lies within the Middle Rio Grande / Albuquerque — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Sandoval County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Sandoval 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 Sandoval County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sandoval County — the short answer
Sandoval County, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 191 days between hard freezes, across 2.4M acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~191
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.4M 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 Sandoval County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandoval County's 191-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Sandoval County
Across a year, Sandoval County accumulates about 2,429 growing degree days above 50°F, about 744 fewer than the middle New Mexico county — ahead of 8 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.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Sandoval County
Across Sandoval County, the ground is predominantly Entisols, where Sandoval, Zia, and Penistaja are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.2–8.1, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Entisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Sandoval County
The USDA soil survey maps 79% of Sandoval County as well drained — but another 13% drains differently: 7% somewhat excessively drained, 4% excessively drained.
Sandoval is the most extensive named soil at 5% of mapped acres, then Zia (5%) and Penistaja (4%).
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 Sandoval County
Each reading below is measured for Sandoval 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 Sandoval County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Sandoval County runs about pH 7.2–8.1, 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
MeasuredSandoval County runs about 191 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSandoval 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 Sandoval County is in
Sandoval County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Arizona/New Mexico Plateau (66%), Southern Rockies (28%) and Arizona/New Mexico Mountains (6%). 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 Sandoval County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Sandoval County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 191-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 Sandoval 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 Mar 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around Sandoval County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Sandoval County
USGS estimates 2,865 lb of Dicamba on Sandoval County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,207 lb) and Triclopyr (1,096 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 Sandoval County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Sandoval County — 599 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.
Sandoval County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Sandoval County
Closest first, across Sandoval County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16N.01W.01.410 DUPNitrate · 2.9 mi
- 16N.01W.01.410ANitrate · 2.9 mi
- CANYON LUMBER AND HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.2 mi
- 17N.02E.33.300Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- JEMEZ SPRINGS MUNICIPAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- 16N.02E.04.424Nitrate · 9.3 mi
- 16N.02E.16.411Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- 16N.02E.16.4111Nitrate · 9.6 mi
- Spanish Queen MineMining · 10.1 mi
- JEMEZ HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICESBrownfields · 10.3 mi
- PUEBLO OF JEMEZBrownfields · 10.3 mi
- 15N.02E.06.22Nitrate · 10.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandoval 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 Sandoval County.
Total Sites
599
across Sandoval County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Sandoval County
Severity Distribution
across Sandoval County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandoval County, two things run higher than the national average across Sandoval County — Nitrate (298 sites) and Mining (47 sites). 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Sandoval 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 Sandoval County average
Your land is one point inside Sandoval County
Everything above resolves to Sandoval County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.4M 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 Sandoval County Average
Sandoval County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sandoval County
- ●One soil character for all of Sandoval County
- ●Frost dates read at Sandoval County's scale: Apr 19 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandoval County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Sandoval County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandoval County, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandoval County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandoval County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandoval County average
How we know this about Sandoval 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 Sandoval County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Sandoval County
When does frost risk typically end in Sandoval County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandoval County typically lands around Apr 19, 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 May 10.
How long is the growing season in Sandoval County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandoval County sees about 191 frost-free days — roughly Apr 19 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 10 to Oct 13, about 156 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandoval County?
The federal record around Sandoval County runs heavier than most — 599 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (298), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Sandoval County's scale — its 7a band and its 191-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandoval 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 Sandoval County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Sandoval County's own scale — its own ~191-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 599 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandoval County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sandoval County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~191-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Sandoval CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 599 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Sandoval County's boundary and the 2,374,522 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~191-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Sandoval County spans, Arizona/New Mexico Plateau the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Sandoval County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Sandoval 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 Sandoval County — the ~191 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 Sandoval County's 2,374,522 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 599 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 Sandoval Countyread your own land →