Keeler Farm, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Keeler Farm, 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 Keeler Farm 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 Keeler Farm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Keeler Farm — the short answer
Keeler Farm, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 8a is Keeler Farm's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Keeler Farm's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Keeler Farm
Each reading below is measured for Keeler Farm itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredKeeler Farm runs about 236 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
MeasuredKeeler Farm sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Keeler Farm is in
Keeler Farm sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Keeler Farm's own centroid rather than borrowed from Luna County.
What Grows in Keeler Farm
Every plant below cleared Keeler Farm's own zone 8a and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Keeler Farm?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Keeler Farm
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Keeler Farm. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROCKY MOUNTAIN TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- LUNA ENERGY FACILITYBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- 5R TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TURQUITE MINERALS ASSAY LABUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DEMING MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- COLUMBUS ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE INC AUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FARMERS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PERU MILL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- LEDBETTER SUPER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SNAPPY MART 211Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PNM DEMING ELECTRIC SRVC CNTRBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- ASARCO INC DEMING MILLBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Keeler Farm'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 Keeler Farm.
Total Sites
149
within ~10 miles of Keeler Farm
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Keeler Farm
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Keeler Farm
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Keeler Farm, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Keeler Farm — CAFO (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (96 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Keeler Farm
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 Keeler Farm average
Your land is one point inside Keeler Farm
Everything above resolves to Keeler Farm as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Keeler Farm Average
Keeler Farm Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Keeler Farm
- ●One soil character for all of Keeler Farm
- ●Frost dates read at Keeler Farm's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Keeler Farm's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Keeler Farm
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Keeler Farm, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Keeler Farm averages can't show:
We read public map data around Keeler Farm — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Keeler Farm average
How we know this about Keeler Farm
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 Keeler Farm’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 Keeler Farm
When does frost risk typically end in Keeler Farm?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Keeler Farm typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Keeler Farm?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Keeler Farm typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Keeler Farm?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Keeler Farm sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 28, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Keeler Farm?
The federal record around Keeler Farm is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Keeler Farm?
From about Oct 12 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 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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Keeler Farm's scale — its 8a band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Keeler Farm'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 Keeler Farm’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Keeler Farm's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,290 acres it covers and 149 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Keeler Farm's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Keeler Farm's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 11 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Keeler Farm, the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Keeler Farm's boundary and the 7,290 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Keeler Farm's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Keeler Farm's 7,290 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Luna County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Luna 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 Luna County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Keeler Farm's 7,290 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Keeler Farm you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,290 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.3 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 Keeler Farm-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoKeeler Farm sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides