Gila Hot Springs, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Gila Hot Springs, 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 Gila Hot Springs 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 Gila Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gila Hot Springs — the short answer
Gila Hot Springs, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 174 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~174
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Gila Hot Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gila Hot Springs's 174-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gila Hot Springs
Each reading below is measured for Gila Hot Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGila Hot Springs runs about 174 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
MeasuredGila Hot Springs 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 Gila Hot Springs is in
Gila Hot Springs sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Gila Hot Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Grant County.
What Grows in Gila Hot Springs
Every plant below cleared Gila Hot Springs's own zone 7a and its 174-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gila Hot Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Gila Hot Springs
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gila Hot Springs checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 519 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gila Hot Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gila Hot Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12S.14W.25.341Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 12S.14W.25.231Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- 12S.14W.25.124Nitrate · 3.4 mi
Measured from Gila Hot Springs'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 Gila Hot Springs.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Gila Hot Springs
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gila Hot Springs
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Gila Hot Springs
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 Gila Hot Springs average
Your land is one point inside Gila Hot Springs
Everything above resolves to Gila Hot Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Gila Hot Springs Average
Gila Hot Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Gila Hot Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Gila Hot Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Gila Hot Springs's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gila Hot Springs's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gila Hot Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gila Hot Springs, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gila Hot Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gila Hot Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gila Hot Springs average
How we know this about Gila Hot Springs
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 Gila Hot Springs’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 Gila Hot Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Gila Hot Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gila Hot Springs typically lands around Apr 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 May 21.
When is the first frost in Gila Hot Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gila Hot Springs typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 174 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gila Hot Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gila Hot Springs sees about 174 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 7, about 139 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gila Hot Springs?
The federal record around Gila Hot Springs is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.1 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 Gila Hot Springs?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gila Hot Springs's scale — its 7a band and its 174-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gila Hot Springs'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 Gila Hot Springs’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gila Hot Springs's own scale — its own ~174-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,056 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gila Hot Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gila Hot Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 21 and the ~174-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gila Hot Springs, the closest Nitrate record about 3.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gila Hot Springs's boundary and the 1,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~174-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gila Hot Springs's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gila Hot Springs 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 Gila Hot Springs's 1,056 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grant 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 Grant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gila Hot Springs's 1,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gila Hot Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,056 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.1 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 Gila Hot Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoGila Hot Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides