Coyote, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Coyote, 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 Coyote 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 Coyote — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Coyote — the short answer
Coyote, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 6b is Coyote's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Coyote's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Coyote
Each reading below is measured for Coyote itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCoyote runs about 172 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
MeasuredCoyote sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Coyote is in
Coyote sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Coyote's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rio Arriba County.
What Grows in Coyote
Every plant below cleared Coyote's own zone 6b and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Coyote?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Coyote
Survey cells within 31 miles of Coyote checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 395 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Coyote
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Coyote. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 22N.03E.03.322Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Red Head #2 MineMining · 2.0 mi
- Coyote Hill MineMining · 2.3 mi
- GALLINA CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- NMDOT GALLINA PATROL YARD 45 63Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Coyote ProspectMining · 2.8 mi
- COYOTE ADMINISTRATIVE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 23N.04E.31.234Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- COYOTE CROSSING MUSTANGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Pajarito AzulMining · 4.0 mi
- Youngsville ProspectsMining · 5.7 mi
- Coyote MineMining · 7.1 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Coyote'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 Coyote.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Coyote
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Coyote
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Coyote
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 Coyote average
Your land is one point inside Coyote
Everything above resolves to Coyote as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Coyote Average
Coyote Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Coyote
- ●One soil character for all of Coyote
- ●Frost dates read at Coyote's scale: Apr 28 to Oct 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Coyote's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Coyote
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Coyote, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Coyote averages can't show:
We read public map data around Coyote — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Coyote average
How we know this about Coyote
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 Coyote’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 Coyote
When does frost risk typically end in Coyote?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Coyote typically lands around Apr 28, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Coyote?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Coyote typically arrives around Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 3, so the watching starts about Sep 17 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Coyote?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Coyote sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 28 through Oct 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 19 to Oct 3, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Coyote?
The federal record around Coyote is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (10), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Coyote?
From about Sep 17 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 Oct 17 (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 Oct 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Coyote's scale — its 6b band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Coyote'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 Coyote’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Coyote's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,659 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Coyote's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Coyote's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 28 and Oct 17 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Coyote, the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Coyote's boundary and the 2,659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Coyote's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Coyote 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 Coyote's 2,659 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rio Arriba County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rio Arriba 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 Rio Arriba County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Coyote's 2,659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Coyote you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.1 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 Coyote-wide figureread your own land →