Monument, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Monument, 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 Monument 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 Monument — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monument — the short answer
Monument, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 8a is Monument's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monument's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monument
Each reading below is measured for Monument itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonument runs about 243 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
MeasuredMonument sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Monument is in
Monument sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Monument's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lea County.
What Grows in Monument
Every plant below cleared Monument's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Monument?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Monument
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monument. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ELLIOTT STATE LEASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MONUMENT GAS PLANTBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- MONUMENT GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- MONUMENT DISTRICT OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ELDRIDGE WATER SUPPLY PROJECTBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- MONUMENT COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- CLIMAX CHEMICAL COToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- MONUMENT HCL PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- BUCKEYE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- LINAM RANCH PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- 19S.37E.04.11Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- RESOURCE PROTECTION INCBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monument'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 Monument.
Total Sites
237
within ~10 miles of Monument
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monument
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monument
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monument, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Monument — Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Monument
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 Monument average
Your land is one point inside Monument
Everything above resolves to Monument as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Monument Average
Monument Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Monument
- ●One soil character for all of Monument
- ●Frost dates read at Monument's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monument's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monument
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monument, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monument averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monument — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monument average
How we know this about Monument
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 Monument’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 Monument
When does frost risk typically end in Monument?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monument typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Monument?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monument typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monument?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monument sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 3, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monument?
The federal record around Monument is a meaningful one — 237 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Monument?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Monument's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monument'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 Monument’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Monument's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,377 acres it covers and 237 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monument's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monument's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 17 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 237 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monument, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monument's boundary and the 3,377 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Monument's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monument's 3,377 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 Monument's 3,377 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monument you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,377 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Monument-wide figureread your own land →
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