Des Moines, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Des Moines, 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 Des Moines 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 Des Moines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Des Moines — the short answer
Des Moines, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 175 days between hard freezes, across 557 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~175
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 557 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 6a is Des Moines's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Des Moines's 175-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Des Moines
Each reading below is measured for Des Moines itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDes Moines runs about 175 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
MeasuredDes Moines sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Des Moines is in
Des Moines sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Des Moines's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Des Moines
Every plant below cleared Des Moines's own zone 6a and its 175-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Des Moines?
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 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Des Moines
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Des Moines. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ABANDONED GAS STATION DUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BACA VALLEY TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NMDOT DES MOINES PATROL YARD 44 52Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CAPULIN VOLCANO NATIONAL MONUMENTBrownfields · 7.7 mi
- 29N.28E.05.234Nitrate · 8.0 mi
- CAPULIN NATIONAL MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- OLD CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- AMERICAN TAXIDORMY & PROCESSINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
Measured from Des Moines'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 Des Moines.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Des Moines
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Des Moines
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 Des Moines
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 Des Moines average
Your land is one point inside Des Moines
Everything above resolves to Des Moines as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 557 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 Des Moines Average
Des Moines Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Des Moines
- ●One soil character for all of Des Moines
- ●Frost dates read at Des Moines's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Des Moines's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Des Moines
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Des Moines, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Des Moines averages can't show:
We read public map data around Des Moines — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Des Moines average
How we know this about Des Moines
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 Des Moines’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 Des Moines
When does frost risk typically end in Des Moines?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Des Moines typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Des Moines?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Des Moines typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 175 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Des Moines?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Des Moines sees about 175 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 4, about 140 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Des Moines?
The federal record around Des Moines is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Des Moines?
From about Sep 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Des Moines's scale — its 6a band and its 175-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Des Moines'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 Des Moines’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Des Moines's own scale — its own ~175-day season between 28°F freezes, the 557 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Des Moines's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Des Moines's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 18 and the ~175-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Des Moines, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Des Moines's boundary and the 557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~175-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Des Moines's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Des Moines's 557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Des Moines's 557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Des Moines you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Des Moines-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoDes Moines sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.