Hope, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Hope, 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 Hope 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 Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hope — the short answer
Hope, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 783 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 783 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 7b is Hope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hope's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hope
Each reading below is measured for Hope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHope runs about 231 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
MeasuredHope sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hope is in
Hope sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Hope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eddy County.
What Grows in Hope
Every plant below cleared Hope's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hope?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Hope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 17S.23E.30.121Nitrate · 2100 ft
- 17S.23E.30.12Nitrate · 2500 ft
- HOPE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 16S.21E.33.2Nitrate · 5.5 mi
- 16S.21E.12.3Nitrate · 7.8 mi
Measured from Hope'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 Hope.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hope
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Hope
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 Hope average
Your land is one point inside Hope
Everything above resolves to Hope as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 783 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 Hope Average
Hope Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hope
- ●One soil character for all of Hope
- ●Frost dates read at Hope's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hope's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hope, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hope average
How we know this about Hope
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 Hope’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 Hope
When does frost risk typically end in Hope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Hope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hope typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hope sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hope?
The federal record around Hope is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Hope?
From about Oct 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 Nov 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hope's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hope'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 Hope’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hope's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 783 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hope's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hope, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hope's boundary and the 783 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hope's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hope's 783 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eddy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eddy 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 Eddy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hope's 783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 783 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 Hope-wide figureread your own land →