La Cienega, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Cienega, 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 La Cienega 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 La Cienega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Cienega — the short answer
La Cienega, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 197 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~197
- 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 7a is La Cienega's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Cienega's 197-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Cienega
Each reading below is measured for La Cienega itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Cienega runs about 197 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
MeasuredLa Cienega 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 La Cienega is in
La Cienega sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at La Cienega's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Fe County.
What Grows in La Cienega
Every plant below cleared La Cienega's own zone 7a and its 197-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Cienega?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near La Cienega
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Cienega. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAS CONCHAS WILDFIRESSuperfund · 1.6 mi
- CIENEGUILLA GRANT, (353608106070201)Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- VILLAS AUTOWORKSBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- NEW BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SANTA FE FINE FINISHINGBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- COMBINED SERVICE MAINTENANCE FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- USAR CENTER JOSEPH I GONZALESBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- 16N.08E.27.124 LEENitrate · 2.0 mi
- COMBINED MAINTENANCE SUPPORT FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- NEW MEXICO ARMY NATIONAL GUARD SANTA FE TRAINING COMPLEXBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- SITIO DE LOS CERRILLOS GRANTNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 16N.08E.27.2213 SF DOWNSNitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Cienega'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 La Cienega.
Total Sites
423
within ~10 miles of La Cienega
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Cienega
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Cienega
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Cienega, Mining runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of La Cienega. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in La Cienega
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 La Cienega average
Your land is one point inside La Cienega
Everything above resolves to La Cienega 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 La Cienega Average
La Cienega Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across La Cienega
- ●One soil character for all of La Cienega
- ●Frost dates read at La Cienega's scale: Apr 14 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Cienega's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Cienega
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Cienega, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Cienega averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Cienega — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Cienega average
How we know this about La Cienega
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 La Cienega’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 La Cienega
When does frost risk typically end in La Cienega?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Cienega typically lands around Apr 14, 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 5.
When is the first frost in La Cienega?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Cienega typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 197 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Cienega?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Cienega sees about 197 frost-free days — roughly Apr 14 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 5 to Oct 14, about 162 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Cienega?
The federal record around La Cienega runs heavier than most — 423 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (175), the nearest Superfund record about 1.6 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in La Cienega?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Cienega's scale — its 7a band and its 197-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Cienega'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 La Cienega’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Cienega's own scale — its own ~197-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,463 acres it covers and 423 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Cienega's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Cienega's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 14 and Oct 28 and the ~197-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 423 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Cienega, the closest Superfund record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Cienega's boundary and the 7,463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~197-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Cienega'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 La Cienega's 7,463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Cienega's 7,463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Cienega you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 1.6 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 La Cienega-wide figureread your own land →