Lake Sumner, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lake Sumner, 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 Sumner 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 Sumner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Sumner — the short answer
Lake Sumner, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 40K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 40K 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 Lake Sumner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Sumner's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Sumner
Each reading below is measured for Lake Sumner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Sumner runs about 220 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 Sumner 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 Lake Sumner is in
Lake Sumner sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Sumner's own centroid rather than borrowed from De Baca County.
What Grows in Lake Sumner
Every plant below cleared Lake Sumner's own zone 7a and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Sumner?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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 Sumner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Sumner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 05N.24E.32.133312Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 04N.25E.30.112321Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 04N.25E.00.000Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 04N.25E.02.331142Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- 04N.24E.36.211Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- 04N.25E.00.000ANitrate · 7.4 mi
- 03N.25E.16.43STEELRANCHNitrate · 9.8 mi
- 04N.26E.29.33343 STOCKWLNitrate · 10.0 mi
Measured from Lake Sumner'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 Sumner.
Total Sites
16
within ~10 miles of Lake Sumner
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
16 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Sumner
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Sumner
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 Sumner average
Your land is one point inside Lake Sumner
Everything above resolves to Lake Sumner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 40K 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 Sumner Average
Lake Sumner Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Lake Sumner
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Sumner
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Sumner's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Sumner's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Sumner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Sumner, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Sumner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Sumner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Sumner average
How we know this about Lake Sumner
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 Sumner’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 Sumner
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Sumner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Sumner typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Lake Sumner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Sumner typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Sumner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Sumner sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 23, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Sumner?
The federal record around Lake Sumner is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (16), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Sumner?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Sumner's scale — its 7a band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Sumner'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 Sumner’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Sumner's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 39,854 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Sumner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Sumner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 6 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Sumner, the closest Nitrate record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Sumner's boundary and the 39,854 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Sumner's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Sumner's 39,854 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom De Baca County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom De Baca 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 De Baca County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Sumner's 39,854 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Sumner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 39,854 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lake Sumner-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoLake Sumner sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides