Isleta, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Isleta, 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 Isleta 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 Isleta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Isleta — the short answer
Isleta, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 468 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 468 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 Isleta's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Isleta's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Isleta
Each reading below is measured for Isleta itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIsleta runs about 208 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
MeasuredIsleta 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 Isleta is in
Isleta sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Isleta's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bernalillo County.
What Grows in Isleta
Every plant below cleared Isleta's own zone 7b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Isleta?
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 Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Isleta
Survey cells within 31 miles of Isleta checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 463 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Isleta
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Isleta. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 08N.02E.23.100Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- KIMO CONSTRUCTORS, INC.Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- 08N.02E.24.244Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- WOODARD EXPLOSIVES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NMDOT FREEWAY PATROL YARD 43 56Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BROWN THEODORE RUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CORNER STORE NO 1212Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- JIM MCMAHONBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- GIANT 7559 DBA GASAMATUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GIANT 549Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BOSQUE TIRE AND AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 08N.03E.20.231Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Isleta'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 Isleta.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Isleta
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Isleta
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Isleta, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 238 sites within ~10 miles of Isleta. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Isleta
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 Isleta average
Your land is one point inside Isleta
Everything above resolves to Isleta as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 468 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 Isleta Average
Isleta Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Isleta
- ●One soil character for all of Isleta
- ●Frost dates read at Isleta's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Isleta's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Isleta
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Isleta, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Isleta averages can't show:
We read public map data around Isleta — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Isleta average
How we know this about Isleta
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 Isleta’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 Isleta
When does frost risk typically end in Isleta?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Isleta typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Isleta?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Isleta typically arrives around Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 17, so the watching starts about Oct 1 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Isleta?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Isleta sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Isleta?
The federal record around Isleta is a meaningful one — 560 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (238), 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 Isleta?
From about Oct 1 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 31 (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 31. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Isleta's scale — its 7b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Isleta'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 Isleta’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Isleta's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 468 acres it covers and 560 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Isleta's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Isleta's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 31 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 560 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Isleta, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Isleta's boundary and the 468 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Isleta's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Isleta 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 Isleta's 468 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bernalillo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bernalillo 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 Bernalillo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Isleta's 468 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Isleta you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 468 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 Isleta-wide figureread your own land →