Madrid, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Madrid, 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 Madrid 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 Madrid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Madrid — the short answer
Madrid, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 890 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 890 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 Madrid's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Madrid's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Madrid
Each reading below is measured for Madrid itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMadrid runs about 208 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
MeasuredMadrid 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 Madrid is in
Madrid sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Madrid's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Santa Fe County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Madrid
Every plant below cleared Madrid's own zone 7a and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Madrid?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Madrid
Survey cells within 31 miles of Madrid checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 452 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Madrid
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Madrid. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TAPPEROS BAR AUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Mina Del TerraMining · 3.8 mi
- 14N.08E.08.12411Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- Mina Del TiroMining · 4.3 mi
- Cunningham Hill MineMining · 4.4 mi
- Ortiz Open Pit MineMining · 4.6 mi
- Live OakMining · 4.7 mi
- Franklin MineMining · 4.9 mi
- Grand Central MineMining · 5.0 mi
- Cash EntryMining · 5.0 mi
- Cash Entry MineMining · 5.0 mi
- Central MineMining · 5.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Madrid'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 Madrid.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Madrid
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Madrid
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Madrid, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Madrid — Mining (32 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Madrid
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 Madrid average
Your land is one point inside Madrid
Everything above resolves to Madrid as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 890 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 Madrid Average
Madrid Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Madrid
- ●One soil character for all of Madrid
- ●Frost dates read at Madrid's scale: Apr 9 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Madrid's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Madrid
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Madrid, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Madrid averages can't show:
We read public map data around Madrid — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Madrid average
How we know this about Madrid
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 Madrid’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 Madrid
When does frost risk typically end in Madrid?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Madrid typically lands around Apr 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Madrid?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Madrid typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Madrid?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Madrid sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 9 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 30 to Oct 20, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Madrid?
The federal record around Madrid runs heavier than most — 60 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Madrid?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Madrid's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Madrid'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 Madrid’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Madrid's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 890 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Madrid's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Madrid's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 9 and Nov 3 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Madrid, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Madrid's boundary and the 890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Madrid sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Madrid 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 Madrid's 890 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Madrid's 890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Madrid you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 890 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Madrid-wide figureread your own land →