Navajo Dam, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Navajo Dam, 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 Navajo Dam 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 Navajo Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Navajo Dam — the short answer
Navajo Dam, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 184 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~184
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Navajo Dam's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Navajo Dam's 184-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Navajo Dam
Each reading below is measured for Navajo Dam itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNavajo Dam runs about 184 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
MeasuredNavajo Dam 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 Navajo Dam is in
Navajo Dam sits in the Colorado Plateaus — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Navajo Dam's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: San Juan County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Navajo Dam
Every plant below cleared Navajo Dam's own zone 7a and its 184-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Navajo Dam?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Navajo Dam
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Navajo Dam. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPORTSMAN INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TIMS TACKLE BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- NAVAJO LAKE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- NM STATE PARKS NAVAJO LAKE STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- SAN JUAN 29-7 UNIT 188Brownfields · 5.1 mi
- ABES MOTEL AND FLY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- ABES STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- PERMIAN TANK & MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 8.4 mi
- RICKEYS COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- NAVAJO CORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- BILLS CUSTOM TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- EPFS LARGO STATIONBrownfields · 8.6 mi
Measured from Navajo Dam'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 Navajo Dam.
Total Sites
12
within ~10 miles of Navajo Dam
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Navajo Dam
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Navajo Dam
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Navajo Dam
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 Navajo Dam average
Your land is one point inside Navajo Dam
Everything above resolves to Navajo Dam as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Navajo Dam Average
Navajo Dam Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Navajo Dam
- ●One soil character for all of Navajo Dam
- ●Frost dates read at Navajo Dam's scale: Apr 23 to Oct 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Navajo Dam's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Navajo Dam
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Navajo Dam, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Navajo Dam averages can't show:
We read public map data around Navajo Dam — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Navajo Dam average
How we know this about Navajo Dam
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 Navajo Dam’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 Navajo Dam
When does frost risk typically end in Navajo Dam?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Navajo Dam typically lands around Apr 23, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Navajo Dam?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Navajo Dam typically arrives around Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 10, so the watching starts about Sep 24 — about 184 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Navajo Dam?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Navajo Dam sees about 184 frost-free days — roughly Apr 23 through Oct 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 14 to Oct 10, about 149 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Navajo Dam?
The federal record around Navajo Dam is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Navajo Dam?
From about Sep 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Navajo Dam's scale — its 7a band and its 184-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Navajo Dam'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 Navajo Dam’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Navajo Dam's own scale — its own ~184-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,724 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Navajo Dam's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Navajo Dam's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 23 and Oct 24 and the ~184-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Navajo Dam, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Navajo Dam's boundary and the 7,724 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~184-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Navajo Dam sits in the Colorado Plateaus — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Navajo Dam's 7,724 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Juan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Juan 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 San Juan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Navajo Dam's 7,724 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Navajo Dam you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,724 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Navajo Dam-wide figureread your own land →