High Rolls, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in High Rolls, 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 High Rolls 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 High Rolls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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High Rolls — the short answer
High Rolls, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 High Rolls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against High Rolls's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in High Rolls
Each reading below is measured for High Rolls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHigh Rolls runs about 188 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
MeasuredHigh Rolls 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 High Rolls is in
High Rolls sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at High Rolls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Otero County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in High Rolls
Every plant below cleared High Rolls's own zone 7a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in High Rolls?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around High Rolls
Survey cells within 31 miles of High Rolls checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 607 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near High Rolls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of High Rolls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16S.11E.10.112 1Nitrate · 2000 ft
- 16S.11E.03.332 2Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- LINCOLN NF: HIGH ROLLS MINING DISTRICTSuperfund · 1.9 mi
- Red Hill DepositMining · 1.9 mi
- Courtney MineMining · 2.2 mi
- HIGH ROLLS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Thorny ProspectMining · 2.6 mi
- Black BearMining · 2.9 mi
- 16S.12E.06.322Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- 16S.12E.06.44 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- 16S.12E.05.133Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- VILLAGE MAINTENANCE YARD 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from High Rolls'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 High Rolls.
Total Sites
214
within ~10 miles of High Rolls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of High Rolls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of High Rolls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around High Rolls, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of High Rolls — Superfund (3 sites) and Nitrate (58 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 High Rolls
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 High Rolls average
Your land is one point inside High Rolls
Everything above resolves to High Rolls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 High Rolls Average
High Rolls Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across High Rolls
- ●One soil character for all of High Rolls
- ●Frost dates read at High Rolls's scale: Apr 25 to Oct 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not High Rolls's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in High Rolls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in High Rolls, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that High Rolls averages can't show:
We read public map data around High Rolls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the High Rolls average
How we know this about High Rolls
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 High Rolls’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 High Rolls
When does frost risk typically end in High Rolls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in High Rolls typically lands around Apr 25, 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 16.
When is the first frost in High Rolls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in High Rolls typically arrives around Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 16, so the watching starts about Sep 30 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in High Rolls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, High Rolls sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 25 through Oct 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 16 to Oct 16, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in High Rolls?
The federal record around High Rolls is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 High Rolls?
From about Sep 30 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at High Rolls's scale — its 7a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of High Rolls'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 High Rolls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at High Rolls's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,864 acres it covers and 214 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- High Rolls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- High Rolls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 25 and Oct 30 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 214 documented contamination sites on the federal record near High Rolls, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- High Rolls's boundary and the 9,864 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- High Rolls sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around High Rolls 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 High Rolls's 9,864 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among High Rolls's 9,864 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of High Rolls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,864 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 High Rolls-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoHigh Rolls sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides