Paa-Ko, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Paa-Ko, 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 Paa-Ko 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 Paa-Ko — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Paa-Ko — the short answer
Paa-Ko, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 194 days between hard freezes, across 4K 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 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~194
- 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 7a is Paa-Ko's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paa-Ko's 194-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paa-Ko
Each reading below is measured for Paa-Ko itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaa-Ko runs about 194 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
MeasuredPaa-Ko 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 Paa-Ko is in
Paa-Ko sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Paa-Ko's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bernalillo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Paa-Ko
Every plant below cleared Paa-Ko's own zone 7a and its 194-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paa-Ko?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 28 — 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.
Documented around Paa-Ko
Survey cells within 31 miles of Paa-Ko checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 457 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Paa-Ko
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paa-Ko. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 12N.06E.31. SAN PEDRO GRANTNitrate · 1.8 mi
- 11N.06E.19.122Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 11N.06E.18.433Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- Mohawk ProspectMining · 2.1 mi
- 11N.06E.19.124Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- 11N.05E.24.233Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11N.05E.24.222Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11N.06E.20.223Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- SANDIA PARK ENTERPRISES INC TRIANGLE GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 11N.05E.24.2213BNitrate · 2.3 mi
- 11N.05E.19.113Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- 11N.05E.24.213Nitrate · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paa-Ko'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 Paa-Ko.
Total Sites
420
within ~10 miles of Paa-Ko
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paa-Ko
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paa-Ko
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paa-Ko, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paa-Ko — Nitrate (348 sites) and Mining (30 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Paa-Ko
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 Paa-Ko average
Your land is one point inside Paa-Ko
Everything above resolves to Paa-Ko 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 Paa-Ko Average
Paa-Ko Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Paa-Ko
- ●One soil character for all of Paa-Ko
- ●Frost dates read at Paa-Ko's scale: Apr 17 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paa-Ko's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paa-Ko
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paa-Ko, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paa-Ko averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paa-Ko — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paa-Ko average
How we know this about Paa-Ko
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 Paa-Ko’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 Paa-Ko
When does frost risk typically end in Paa-Ko?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paa-Ko 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 Paa-Ko?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paa-Ko typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 194 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paa-Ko?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paa-Ko sees about 194 frost-free days — roughly Apr 17 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 8 to Oct 14, about 159 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paa-Ko?
The federal record around Paa-Ko is a meaningful one — 420 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (348), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Paa-Ko?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paa-Ko's scale — its 7a band and its 194-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paa-Ko'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 Paa-Ko’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Paa-Ko's own scale — its own ~194-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,715 acres it covers and 420 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paa-Ko's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paa-Ko's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 17 and Oct 28 and the ~194-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 420 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paa-Ko, the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paa-Ko's boundary and the 3,715 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~194-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Paa-Ko sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Paa-Ko 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 Paa-Ko's 3,715 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 Paa-Ko's 3,715 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paa-Ko you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,715 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.8 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 Paa-Ko-wide figureread your own land →