La Cueva, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, blackberry, 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 Cueva, 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 Cueva 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 Cueva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Cueva — the short answer
La Cueva, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 176 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~176
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 6b is La Cueva's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Cueva's 176-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Cueva
Each reading below is measured for La Cueva itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Cueva runs about 176 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 Cueva sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Cueva is in
La Cueva sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at La Cueva's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Santa Fe County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in La Cueva
Every plant below cleared La Cueva's own zone 6b and its 176-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Cueva?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Cueva
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Cueva. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLORIETA 2.0 INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GLORIETA 2.0 INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- HONEY BOY HAVEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- FORKED LIGHTNING RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Fairview Lode MineMining · 2.6 mi
- TARGET GAS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- KunklinMining · 3.1 mi
- ITS GAS AND FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- Paytiamo DepositMining · 3.8 mi
- PaytianoMining · 3.8 mi
- PECOS CANYON STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- AC & J MECHANIC SHOP IIBrownfields · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Cueva'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 Cueva.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of La Cueva
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Cueva
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Cueva
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Cueva, Mining runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of La Cueva. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Cueva
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 Cueva average
Your land is one point inside La Cueva
Everything above resolves to La Cueva as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Cueva Average
La Cueva Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across La Cueva
- ●One soil character for all of La Cueva
- ●Frost dates read at La Cueva's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Cueva's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Cueva
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Cueva, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Cueva averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Cueva — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Cueva average
How we know this about La Cueva
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 Cueva’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 Cueva
When does frost risk typically end in La Cueva?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Cueva typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in La Cueva?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Cueva typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 176 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Cueva?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Cueva sees about 176 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 6, about 141 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Cueva?
The federal record around La Cueva shows 27 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in La Cueva?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Cueva's scale — its 6b band and its 176-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Cueva'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 Cueva’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at La Cueva's own scale — its own ~176-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,915 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Cueva's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Cueva's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 20 and the ~176-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Cueva, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Cueva's boundary and the 4,915 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~176-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- La Cueva sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Cueva's 4,915 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 Cueva's 4,915 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Cueva you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,915 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Cueva-wide figureread your own land →