La Villita, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Villita, 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 Villita 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 Villita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Villita — the short answer
La Villita, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 180 days between hard freezes, across 868 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- 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
- ~180
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 868 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 Villita's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Villita's 180-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Villita
Each reading below is measured for La Villita itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLa Villita runs about 180 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 Villita 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 Villita is in
La Villita sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at La Villita's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rio Arriba County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in La Villita
Every plant below cleared La Villita's own zone 7a and its 180-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Villita?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (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. As the window narrows, the plantings just get faster — fall brassicas, then greens, then garlic to finish.
Documented around La Villita
Survey cells within 31 miles of La Villita checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 418 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near La Villita
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Villita. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 21N.08E.02.2221Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CHAVEZ SHELL CHAVEZ PAINT AND BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CORN CONSTRUCTION COBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- LA TIENDITA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- JORGE A. GOMEZ AUTO TECHBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- P AND L GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 21N.08E.14.134Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- DSS ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- NMDOT ALCALDE PATROL YARD 45 51Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- ADOBE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- VALLEY GULF AND QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- MONTOYA'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Villita'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 Villita.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Villita
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Villita
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Villita, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of La Villita. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in La Villita
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 Villita average
Your land is one point inside La Villita
Everything above resolves to La Villita as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 868 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 Villita Average
La Villita Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across La Villita
- ●One soil character for all of La Villita
- ●Frost dates read at La Villita's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Villita's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Villita
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Villita, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Villita averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Villita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Villita average
How we know this about La Villita
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 Villita’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 Villita
When does frost risk typically end in La Villita?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Villita typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in La Villita?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Villita 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 180 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Villita?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Villita sees about 180 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 6, about 145 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Villita?
The federal record around La Villita is a meaningful one — 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 La Villita?
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 Villita's scale — its 7a band and its 180-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Villita'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 Villita’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at La Villita's own scale — its own ~180-day season between 28°F freezes, the 868 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Villita's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- La Villita's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 20 and the ~180-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Villita, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Villita's boundary and the 868 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~180-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- La Villita sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around La Villita 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 Villita's 868 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 Villita's 868 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Villita you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 868 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 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 Villita-wide figureread your own land →