Eagle Nest, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, cranberry, lavender, and pumpkin — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Eagle Nest, 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 Eagle Nest 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 Eagle Nest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Eagle Nest — the short answer
Eagle Nest, New Mexico: USDA zone 5a, about 113 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~113
- 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 5a is Eagle Nest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eagle Nest's 113-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eagle Nest
Each reading below is measured for Eagle Nest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEagle Nest runs about 113 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEagle Nest sits in USDA hardiness zone 5a.
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 Eagle Nest is in
Eagle Nest sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Eagle Nest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colfax County.
What Grows in Eagle Nest
Every plant below cleared Eagle Nest's own zone 5a and its 113-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eagle Nest?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around May 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Eagle Nest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eagle Nest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NMDOT EAGLE NEST PATROL YARD 44 55Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EAGLE NEST CONOCO AUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EAGLE NEST MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EAGLE NEST ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EAGLE NEST LAKE STATE PARKBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- BOATSHOP SALVAGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Klondike MineMining · 3.4 mi
- Iron Mountains ProspectsMining · 3.8 mi
- EAGLE NEST TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- CHEVRON SERVICE STATION 76002Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- GOLDEN EAGLE RV PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Ajax MineMining · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eagle Nest'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 Eagle Nest.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eagle Nest
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eagle Nest, Mining runs higher than the national average — 27 sites within ~10 miles of Eagle Nest. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Eagle Nest
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 Eagle Nest average
Your land is one point inside Eagle Nest
Everything above resolves to Eagle Nest 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 Eagle Nest Average
Eagle Nest Average
- ●USDA Zones 5a, averaged across Eagle Nest
- ●One soil character for all of Eagle Nest
- ●Frost dates read at Eagle Nest's scale: May 30 to Sep 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eagle Nest's 5a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eagle Nest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eagle Nest, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eagle Nest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eagle Nest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eagle Nest average
How we know this about Eagle Nest
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 Eagle Nest’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 Eagle Nest
When does frost risk typically end in Eagle Nest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Nest typically lands around May 30, 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 Jun 20.
When is the first frost in Eagle Nest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eagle Nest typically arrives around Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 6, so the watching starts about Aug 21 — about 113 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eagle Nest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eagle Nest sees about 113 frost-free days — roughly May 30 through Sep 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 20 to Sep 6, about 78 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eagle Nest?
The federal record around Eagle Nest runs heavier than most — 38 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (27), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Eagle Nest?
With about 113 frost-free days between hard freezes, Eagle Nest rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 141 to 169 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 30 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Eagle Nest's scale — its 5a band and its 113-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eagle Nest'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 Eagle Nest’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Eagle Nest's own scale — its own ~113-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,870 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eagle Nest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Eagle Nest's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 30 and Sep 20 and the ~113-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eagle Nest, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eagle Nest's boundary and the 2,870 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5a and a ~113-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eagle Nest's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eagle Nest's 2,870 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colfax 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 Colfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eagle Nest's 2,870 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eagle Nest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,870 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Eagle Nest-wide figureread your own land →