Nadine, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Nadine, 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 Nadine 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 Nadine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nadine — the short answer
Nadine, New Mexico: USDA zone 8a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- 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
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 8a is Nadine's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nadine's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nadine
Each reading below is measured for Nadine itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNadine runs about 244 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
MeasuredNadine 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 Nadine is in
Nadine sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Nadine's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lea County.
What Grows in Nadine
Every plant below cleared Nadine's own zone 8a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nadine?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Nadine
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nadine. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDEPENDANCE OILFIELD CHEMICALSToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- FOUR ACES COATINGS & PAINTBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CHAMPION TECHNOLOGIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- UNICHEMBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- HOBBS CRUDE OIL UNLOADING STATIONBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- KELLY MACLASKEY OILFIELD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- PATE TRUCKING COMPANY, LLCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- 20S.38E.08.000Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- NOVA MUD INC.Brownfields · 4.3 mi
- OLD ARK JUNCTION CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- STRIPES #5020Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nadine'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 Nadine.
Total Sites
319
within ~10 miles of Nadine
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nadine
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nadine
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nadine, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 203 sites within ~10 miles of Nadine. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Nadine
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 Nadine average
Your land is one point inside Nadine
Everything above resolves to Nadine 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 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 Nadine Average
Nadine Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Nadine
- ●One soil character for all of Nadine
- ●Frost dates read at Nadine's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nadine's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nadine
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nadine, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nadine averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nadine — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nadine average
How we know this about Nadine
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 Nadine’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 Nadine
When does frost risk typically end in Nadine?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nadine typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Nadine?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nadine 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 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nadine?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nadine sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 3, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nadine?
The federal record around Nadine is a meaningful one — 319 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (203), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 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 Nadine?
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 Nadine's scale — its 8a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nadine'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 Nadine’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nadine's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,292 acres it covers and 319 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nadine's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nadine's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 17 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 319 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nadine, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nadine's boundary and the 7,292 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nadine's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nadine's 7,292 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 Nadine's 7,292 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nadine you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,292 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 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 Nadine-wide figureread your own land →
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