Ojo Amarillo, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Ojo Amarillo, 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 Ojo Amarillo 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 Ojo Amarillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ojo Amarillo — the short answer
Ojo Amarillo, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 188 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~188
- 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 7a is Ojo Amarillo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ojo Amarillo's 188-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ojo Amarillo
Each reading below is measured for Ojo Amarillo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOjo Amarillo runs about 188 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
MeasuredOjo Amarillo 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 Ojo Amarillo is in
Ojo Amarillo sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Ojo Amarillo's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Juan County.
What Grows in Ojo Amarillo
Every plant below cleared Ojo Amarillo's own zone 7a and its 188-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ojo Amarillo?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Ojo Amarillo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ojo Amarillo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NR031.0699X0631Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- NR031.0520X0185Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- 29N.14W.07.333Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- KIRTLAND BUSINESS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- NR031.0410X0545Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- UTAH INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- MANNING TRADING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- SHIPROCK PESTICIDESuperfund · 3.3 mi
- SUN DIAL STORE 709Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SALVAGE PLUS METAL RECYCLINGBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- FRUITLAND TRADING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 550 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ojo Amarillo'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 Ojo Amarillo.
Total Sites
274
within ~10 miles of Ojo Amarillo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ojo Amarillo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ojo Amarillo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ojo Amarillo, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Ojo Amarillo. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Ojo Amarillo
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 Ojo Amarillo average
Your land is one point inside Ojo Amarillo
Everything above resolves to Ojo Amarillo 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 Ojo Amarillo Average
Ojo Amarillo Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Ojo Amarillo
- ●One soil character for all of Ojo Amarillo
- ●Frost dates read at Ojo Amarillo's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ojo Amarillo's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ojo Amarillo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ojo Amarillo, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ojo Amarillo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ojo Amarillo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ojo Amarillo average
How we know this about Ojo Amarillo
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 Ojo Amarillo’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 Ojo Amarillo
When does frost risk typically end in Ojo Amarillo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ojo Amarillo typically lands around Apr 17, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Ojo Amarillo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ojo Amarillo typically arrives around Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 8, so the watching starts about Sep 22 — about 188 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ojo Amarillo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ojo Amarillo sees about 188 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 8, about 153 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ojo Amarillo?
The federal record around Ojo Amarillo is a meaningful one — 274 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (127), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.4 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 Ojo Amarillo?
From about Sep 22 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ojo Amarillo's scale — its 7a band and its 188-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ojo Amarillo'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 Ojo Amarillo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ojo Amarillo's own scale — its own ~188-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,258 acres it covers and 274 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ojo Amarillo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ojo Amarillo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 22 and the ~188-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 274 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ojo Amarillo, the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ojo Amarillo's boundary and the 1,258 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~188-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ojo Amarillo'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 Ojo Amarillo's 1,258 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 Ojo Amarillo's 1,258 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ojo Amarillo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,258 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 2.4 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 Ojo Amarillo-wide figureread your own land →