Lake Valley, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Lake Valley, 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 Valley 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 Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Valley — the short answer
Lake Valley, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 179 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- 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
- ~179
- 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 Lake Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Valley's 179-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Valley
Each reading below is measured for Lake Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Valley runs about 179 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
MeasuredLake Valley 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 Lake Valley is in
Lake Valley sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Lake Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Juan County.
What Grows in Lake Valley
Every plant below cleared Lake Valley's own zone 6b and its 179-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Valley?
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 Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (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.
What's on the federal record near Lake Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 22N.12W.31.Nitrate · 1800 ft
- 22N.12W.31.433Nitrate · 2600 ft
- 22N.12W.31.433ANitrate · 2600 ft
- 22N.13W.24.Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 22N.13W.24.342 LA VIDA1 MENF WELL NR LA VIDA,NMNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 21N.13W.14.2Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- 21N.12W.17.33Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- NR065.1262X1434Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- 21N.12W.33.1222Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- 21N.12W.23.4311Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- NR066.0135X1090 DUPNitrate · 6.2 mi
- NR066.020 X095Nitrate · 7.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Valley'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 Valley.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Lake Valley
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
42 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Valley, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Valley. 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 Valley
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 Valley average
Your land is one point inside Lake Valley
Everything above resolves to Lake Valley 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 Lake Valley Average
Lake Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Lake Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Valley's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Valley's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Valley, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Valley average
How we know this about Lake Valley
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 Valley’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 Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Valley typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Lake Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Valley 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 179 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Valley sees about 179 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 6, about 144 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Valley?
The federal record around Lake Valley is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (42), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Valley?
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 Lake Valley's scale — its 6b band and its 179-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Valley'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 Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Valley's own scale — its own ~179-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,342 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 20 and the ~179-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Valley's boundary and the 5,342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~179-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Valley's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Valley's 5,342 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Juan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Juan 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 San Juan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Valley's 5,342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,342 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Valley-wide figureread your own land →