Garfield, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Garfield, 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 Garfield 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 Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garfield — the short answer
Garfield, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 497 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 497 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 8a is Garfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garfield's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garfield
Each reading below is measured for Garfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarfield runs about 246 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGarfield sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Garfield is in
Garfield sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Garfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doña Ana County.
What Grows in Garfield
Every plant below cleared Garfield's own zone 8a and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garfield?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Garfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Garfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 575 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Garfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRUJILLO RUDYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- BERRIDGE ROBERT EUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- GARFIELD GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- 18S.04W.08.422Nitrate · 550 ft
- PAT CRISWELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GARFIELD CAFE AND TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 18S.04W.08.342 H-10RNitrate · 0.5 mi
- 18S.04W.08.342Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- USBR RIN9 18S.04W.17.422Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 18S.04W.05.314Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 18S.04W.05.314 H9-RNitrate · 1.1 mi
- 18S.04W.17.4322Nitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garfield'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 Garfield.
Total Sites
159
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garfield
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garfield, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Garfield — Nitrate (118 sites) and Superfund (3 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Garfield
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 Garfield average
Your land is one point inside Garfield
Everything above resolves to Garfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 497 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 Garfield Average
Garfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Garfield
- ●One soil character for all of Garfield
- ●Frost dates read at Garfield's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garfield's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garfield, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garfield average
How we know this about Garfield
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 Garfield’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 Garfield
When does frost risk typically end in Garfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically lands around Mar 11, 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 Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Garfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garfield typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garfield sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Oct 29, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garfield?
The federal record around Garfield is a meaningful one — 159 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (118), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Garfield?
From about Oct 13 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 Nov 12 (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 Nov 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garfield's scale — its 8a band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garfield'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 Garfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Garfield's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 497 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 12 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garfield, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garfield's boundary and the 497 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garfield's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Garfield 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 Garfield's 497 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doña Ana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doña Ana 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 Doña Ana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garfield's 497 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 497 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Garfield-wide figureread your own land →
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