La Madera, 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 Madera, 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 Madera 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 Madera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Madera — the short answer
La Madera, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 186 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~186
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Madera's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Madera's 186-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Madera
Each reading below is measured for La Madera itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Madera runs about 186 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 Madera 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 Madera is in
La Madera sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at La Madera's own centroid rather than borrowed from Rio Arriba County.
What Grows in La Madera
Every plant below cleared La Madera's own zone 6b and its 186-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Madera?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
Documented around La Madera
Survey cells within 31 miles of La Madera checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 404 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near La Madera
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Madera. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FORMER LA PASADA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LA MADERA MERCANTILE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 25N.08E.24.243Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 25N.08E.24.222Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- LA MADERA MDWCAPFAS · 3.6 mi
- La Madera-Palomas Canyon GroupMining · 4.2 mi
- Ojo Caliente WellNitrate · 4.9 mi
- MARTINEZ ZACUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- ROADSIDE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- AT T C OJO CALIENTE RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Sunnyside MineMining · 5.3 mi
- Alamos GroupMining · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Madera'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 Madera.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Madera
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Madera
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Madera, Mining runs higher than the national average — 57 sites within ~10 miles of La Madera. 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 Madera
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 Madera average
Your land is one point inside La Madera
Everything above resolves to La Madera as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Madera Average
La Madera Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across La Madera
- ●One soil character for all of La Madera
- ●Frost dates read at La Madera's scale: Apr 22 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Madera's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Madera
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Madera, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Madera averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Madera — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Madera average
How we know this about La Madera
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 Madera’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 Madera
When does frost risk typically end in La Madera?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Madera typically lands around Apr 22, 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 13.
When is the first frost in La Madera?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Madera typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 186 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Madera?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Madera sees about 186 frost-free days — roughly Apr 22 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 13 to Oct 11, about 151 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Madera?
The federal record around La Madera shows 83 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Madera?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Madera's scale — its 6b band and its 186-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Madera'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 Madera’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at La Madera's own scale — its own ~186-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,841 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Madera's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Madera's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 22 and Oct 25 and the ~186-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Madera, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Madera's boundary and the 2,841 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~186-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Madera's own centroid, the Southern RockiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around La Madera 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 La Madera's 2,841 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rio Arriba County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rio Arriba 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 Rio Arriba County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Madera's 2,841 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Madera you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,841 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 La Madera-wide figureread your own land →