Lake Arthur, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lake Arthur, 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 Lake Arthur 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 Lake Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Arthur — the short answer
Lake Arthur, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 340 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 340 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 7b is Lake Arthur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Arthur's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Arthur
Each reading below is measured for Lake Arthur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Arthur runs about 233 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
MeasuredLake Arthur sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Lake Arthur is in
Lake Arthur sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Lake Arthur's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chaves County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lake Arthur
Every plant below cleared Lake Arthur's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Arthur?
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 Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Lake Arthur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMERICAN OIL RECOVERYBrownfields · 1500 ft
- RAYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RAYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- AT AND SF LAKE ARTHURUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 16S.26E.15.Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- 16S.25E.02.3Nitrate · 6.5 mi
- 16S.26E.19.211ANitrate · 6.7 mi
- 16S.26E.18.331Nitrate · 6.7 mi
- NM STATE PARK AND RECREATION DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- HARSHEY FARM AUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- 16S.25E.11.133ANitrate · 7.2 mi
- 16S.25E.03.114Nitrate · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Arthur'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 Lake Arthur.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Arthur, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Arthur. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lake Arthur
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 Lake Arthur average
Your land is one point inside Lake Arthur
Everything above resolves to Lake Arthur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 340 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 Lake Arthur Average
Lake Arthur Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lake Arthur
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Arthur
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Arthur's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Arthur's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Arthur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Arthur, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Arthur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Arthur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Arthur average
How we know this about Lake Arthur
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 Lake Arthur’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 Lake Arthur
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Arthur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arthur typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 12.
When is the first frost in Lake Arthur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Arthur typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Arthur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Arthur sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Arthur?
The federal record around Lake Arthur is a meaningful one — 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Lake Arthur?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Arthur's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Arthur'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 Lake Arthur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Arthur's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 340 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Arthur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Arthur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 10 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Arthur, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Arthur's boundary and the 340 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lake Arthur sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Arthur's 340 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chaves County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chaves 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 Chaves County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Arthur's 340 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Arthur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 340 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Lake Arthur-wide figureread your own land →