Mount Taylor, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mount Taylor, 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 Mount Taylor 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 Mount Taylor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mount Taylor — the short answer
Mount Taylor, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 171 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~171
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6a is Mount Taylor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mount Taylor's 171-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mount Taylor
Each reading below is measured for Mount Taylor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMount Taylor runs about 171 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
MeasuredMount Taylor sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Mount Taylor is in
Mount Taylor sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mount Taylor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in Mount Taylor
Every plant below cleared Mount Taylor's own zone 6a and its 171-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mount Taylor?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 18 — 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 Mount Taylor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mount Taylor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY STORE #2700Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #2652Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- MESA TRANSPORTATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HOLIDAY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GRANTS LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WALGREENS #15607Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- GND FUEL LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- I 40 PUMP AND SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- M 1 TOWING AND SALVAGEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GRANTS RECYCLINGBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- WILSON PAVING COMPANYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- RIVERSIDE AUTO & DIESELBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mount Taylor'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 Mount Taylor.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mount Taylor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mount Taylor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mount Taylor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mount Taylor — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (102 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Mount Taylor
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 Mount Taylor average
Your land is one point inside Mount Taylor
Everything above resolves to Mount Taylor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Mount Taylor Average
Mount Taylor Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Mount Taylor
- ●One soil character for all of Mount Taylor
- ●Frost dates read at Mount Taylor's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mount Taylor's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mount Taylor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mount Taylor, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mount Taylor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mount Taylor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mount Taylor average
How we know this about Mount Taylor
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 Mount Taylor’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 Mount Taylor
When does frost risk typically end in Mount Taylor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Taylor typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Mount Taylor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mount Taylor typically arrives around Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 4, so the watching starts about Sep 18 — about 171 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mount Taylor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mount Taylor sees about 171 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 4, about 136 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mount Taylor?
The federal record around Mount Taylor is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Mount Taylor?
From about Sep 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 Oct 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mount Taylor's scale — its 6a band and its 171-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mount Taylor'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 Mount Taylor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mount Taylor's own scale — its own ~171-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,221 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mount Taylor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mount Taylor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 18 and the ~171-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mount Taylor, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mount Taylor's boundary and the 1,221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~171-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mount Taylor'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 Mount Taylor's 1,221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mount Taylor's 1,221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mount Taylor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Mount Taylor-wide figureread your own land →