Golden Acres, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Golden Acres, 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 Golden Acres 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 Golden Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Golden Acres — the short answer
Golden Acres, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 156 days between hard freezes, across 587 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~156
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 587 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 Golden Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Golden Acres's 156-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Golden Acres
Each reading below is measured for Golden Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGolden Acres runs about 156 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
MeasuredGolden Acres 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 Golden Acres is in
Golden Acres sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Golden Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in Golden Acres
Every plant below cleared Golden Acres's own zone 6a and its 156-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Golden Acres?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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 Golden Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Golden Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11N.10W.08.122Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- 11N.10W.05.212Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 11N.10W.08.111ANitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.10W.04.311Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.10W.08.221Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N.10W.08.222Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N.10W.04.333Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- MOUNT TAYLOR MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BLUEWATER TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 11N.10W.04.000Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 11N.10W.04.211Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- 12N.10W.32.111Nitrate · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Golden Acres'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 Golden Acres.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Golden Acres
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Golden Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Golden Acres, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Golden Acres — Superfund (13 sites) and Nitrate (154 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Golden Acres
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 Golden Acres average
Your land is one point inside Golden Acres
Everything above resolves to Golden Acres as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 587 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 Golden Acres Average
Golden Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Golden Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Golden Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Golden Acres's scale: May 8 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Golden Acres's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Golden Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Golden Acres, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Golden Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Golden Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Golden Acres average
How we know this about Golden Acres
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 Golden Acres’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 Golden Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Golden Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Golden Acres typically lands around May 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Golden Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Golden Acres typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 156 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Golden Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Golden Acres sees about 156 frost-free days — roughly May 8 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 29 to Sep 27, about 121 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Golden Acres?
The federal record around Golden Acres is a meaningful one — 294 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (154), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Golden Acres?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Golden Acres's scale — its 6a band and its 156-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Golden Acres'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 Golden Acres’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Golden Acres's own scale — its own ~156-day season between 28°F freezes, the 587 acres it covers and 294 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Golden Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Golden Acres's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 8 and Oct 11 and the ~156-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 294 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Golden Acres, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Golden Acres's boundary and the 587 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~156-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Golden Acres's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Golden Acres's 587 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Golden Acres's 587 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Golden Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 587 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Golden Acres-wide figureread your own land →