North Valley, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in North Valley, 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 North Valley 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 North Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Valley — the short answer
North Valley, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 7b is North Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Valley's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Valley
Each reading below is measured for North Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorth Valley runs about 214 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
MeasuredNorth Valley sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 North Valley is in
North Valley sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at North Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bernalillo County.
What Grows in North Valley
Every plant below cleared North Valley's own zone 7b and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Valley?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around North Valley
Survey cells within 31 miles of North Valley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 450 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near North Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SONSHINE COLLISION, LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- HANNA PLUMBING AND HEATING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 11N.03E.GALLEGOS GRANT 2Nitrate · 1600 ft
- GROENDYKE TRANSPORT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TEWA MOULDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- RAYSTEEL INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ALBUQUERQUE AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- MAJESTIC CONSTRUCTION WEST LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 11N.03E.15.344B PASEO 3 MIDNitrate · 0.6 mi
- 11N.03E.15.344C PASEO 3 DEEPNitrate · 0.6 mi
- DURHAM SCHOOL SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CARRILLO LEOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Valley'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 North Valley.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Valley
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.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in North Valley
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 North Valley average
Your land is one point inside North Valley
Everything above resolves to North Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 North Valley Average
North Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across North Valley
- ●One soil character for all of North Valley
- ●Frost dates read at North Valley's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Valley, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Valley average
How we know this about North Valley
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 North Valley’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 North Valley
When does frost risk typically end in North Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Valley typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in North Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Valley typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Valley sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 18, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Valley?
The federal record around North Valley runs heavier than most — 2,976 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,280), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in North Valley?
From about Oct 2 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Valley'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 North Valley’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at North Valley's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,447 acres it covers and 2,976 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- North Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 1 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,976 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Valley, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Valley's boundary and the 4,447 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Valley's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around North Valley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Valley's 4,447 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bernalillo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bernalillo 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 Bernalillo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Valley's 4,447 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,447 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 North Valley-wide figureread your own land →