Cuartelez, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cuartelez, 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 Cuartelez 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 Cuartelez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cuartelez — the short answer
Cuartelez, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 875 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 875 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 7a is Cuartelez's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cuartelez's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cuartelez
Each reading below is measured for Cuartelez itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCuartelez runs about 184 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
MeasuredCuartelez 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 Cuartelez is in
Cuartelez sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Cuartelez's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Fe County.
What Grows in Cuartelez
Every plant below cleared Cuartelez's own zone 7a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cuartelez?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — 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 Cuartelez
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cuartelez checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 425 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cuartelez
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cuartelez. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLM-VELARDE LANDFILLSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- 20N.09E.05.422Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- SANTA CRUZ COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LA TIENDITA DEL PAISAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MCCURDY SCHOOLS OF NORTHERN NEW MEXICOBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- 20N.08E.01.314Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 20N.08E.01.332Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- MCCURDY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ESPANOLA BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- ARROYO SECO MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- SAN PEDRO MUSTANGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- ALLSUPS 333Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cuartelez'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 Cuartelez.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cuartelez
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cuartelez
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cuartelez, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cuartelez — Superfund (4 sites) and Nitrate (62 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cuartelez
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 Cuartelez average
Your land is one point inside Cuartelez
Everything above resolves to Cuartelez as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 875 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 Cuartelez Average
Cuartelez Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Cuartelez
- ●One soil character for all of Cuartelez
- ●Frost dates read at Cuartelez's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cuartelez's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cuartelez
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cuartelez, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cuartelez averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cuartelez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cuartelez average
How we know this about Cuartelez
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 Cuartelez’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 Cuartelez
When does frost risk typically end in Cuartelez?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cuartelez typically lands around Apr 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 May 14.
When is the first frost in Cuartelez?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cuartelez typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cuartelez?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cuartelez sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cuartelez?
The federal record around Cuartelez is a meaningful one — 168 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Superfund record about 0.6 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cuartelez?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cuartelez's scale — its 7a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cuartelez'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 Cuartelez’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Cuartelez's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 875 acres it covers and 168 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cuartelez's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cuartelez's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 168 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cuartelez, the closest Superfund record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cuartelez's boundary and the 875 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cuartelez's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cuartelez 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 Cuartelez's 875 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cuartelez's 875 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cuartelez you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 875 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.6 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 Cuartelez-wide figureread your own land →