Lovington, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lovington, 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 Lovington 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 Lovington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lovington — the short answer
Lovington, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Lovington's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lovington's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lovington
Each reading below is measured for Lovington itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLovington runs about 232 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
MeasuredLovington 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 Lovington is in
Lovington sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lovington's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lea County.
What Grows in Lovington
Every plant below cleared Lovington's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lovington?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Lovington
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lovington. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOVINGTON 66 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- LOVINGTON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- PEARSON OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BELL GAS 138Underground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- FINA 12Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- ALLSUPS - NO109Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- WILSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- ALLSUPS 16Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- POLICE FIRE COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- MINOR NECESSITIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WESTERN PETROLEUM #8860Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIRE DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lovington'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 Lovington.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Lovington
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lovington
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lovington
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lovington, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 42 sites within ~10 miles of Lovington. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Lovington
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 Lovington average
Your land is one point inside Lovington
Everything above resolves to Lovington as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 city 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 Lovington Average
Lovington Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lovington
- ●One soil character for all of Lovington
- ●Frost dates read at Lovington's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lovington's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lovington
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lovington, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lovington averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lovington — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lovington average
How we know this about Lovington
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Lovington’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Lovington
When does frost risk typically end in Lovington?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lovington typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lovington?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lovington typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lovington?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lovington sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 30, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lovington?
The federal record around Lovington shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lovington?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lovington's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lovington'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 Lovington’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lovington's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,165 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lovington's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lovington's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 13 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lovington, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lovington's boundary and the 7,165 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lovington's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lovington's 7,165 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lea County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lea 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 Lea County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lovington's 7,165 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lovington you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,165 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lovington-wide figureread your own land →
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