Maxwell, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Maxwell, 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 Maxwell 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 Maxwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Maxwell — the short answer
Maxwell, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 303 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 303 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 5b is Maxwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Maxwell's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Maxwell
Each reading below is measured for Maxwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMaxwell runs about 163 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
MeasuredMaxwell sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Maxwell is in
Maxwell sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Maxwell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Colfax County is mostly Southern Rockies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Maxwell
Every plant below cleared Maxwell's own zone 5b and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Maxwell?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 9 — 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 Maxwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Maxwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MAXWELL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- BRAGGS CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MAXWELL NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MAXWELL GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Maxwell NWR-East well, south playa below Lake 13Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- Maxwell NWR-North well, south playa below Lake 13Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- Maxwell NWR-West well, south playa below Lake 13Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- Maxwell NWR-North well, north playa below Lake 13Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- HOOTER BROWN CHLORINATED SOLVENTSSuperfund · 6.5 mi
- OLD PATROL YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- RUSSELLS TRUCK AND TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
Measured from Maxwell'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 Maxwell.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Maxwell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Maxwell
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •A Superfund listing means federally documented contamination. Test soil and water before planting edibles nearby.
Check your specific parcel in Maxwell
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 Maxwell average
Your land is one point inside Maxwell
Everything above resolves to Maxwell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 303 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 Maxwell Average
Maxwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Maxwell
- ●One soil character for all of Maxwell
- ●Frost dates read at Maxwell's scale: Apr 29 to Oct 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Maxwell's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Maxwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Maxwell, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Maxwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Maxwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Maxwell average
How we know this about Maxwell
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 Maxwell’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 Maxwell
When does frost risk typically end in Maxwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Maxwell typically lands around Apr 29, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Maxwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Maxwell typically arrives around Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 25, so the watching starts about Sep 9 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Maxwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Maxwell sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly Apr 29 through Oct 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 20 to Sep 25, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Maxwell?
The federal record around Maxwell is a meaningful one — 15 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Maxwell?
From about Sep 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Maxwell's scale — its 5b band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Maxwell'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 Maxwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Maxwell's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 303 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Maxwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Maxwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 29 and Oct 9 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Maxwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Maxwell's boundary and the 303 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Maxwell sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Maxwell's 303 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colfax County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colfax 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 Colfax County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Maxwell's 303 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Maxwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 303 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Maxwell-wide figureread your own land →