Paraje, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — 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, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Paraje, 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 Paraje 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 Paraje — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Paraje — the short answer
Paraje, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 187 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~187
- 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 6b is Paraje's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paraje's 187-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paraje
Each reading below is measured for Paraje itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredParaje runs about 187 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
MeasuredParaje sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Paraje is in
Paraje sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Paraje's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cibola County.
What Grows in Paraje
Every plant below cleared Paraje's own zone 6b and its 187-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paraje?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — 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 Paraje
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paraje. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RIO SAN JOSE RADIATION SITESuperfund · 1600 ft
- 10N.06W.33.100Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 10N.06W.33.142Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 09N.06W.10.122Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 10N.06W.35.323Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 10N.06W.35.140Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 10N.06W.35.342 Pueblo Test 2Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 10N.06W.35.324 New LagunaNitrate · 1.5 mi
- 10N.06W.31.443 SeamaNitrate · 2.2 mi
- 10N.06W.31.443ANitrate · 2.2 mi
- 09N.06W.16.111Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- NEW LAGUNA MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paraje'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 Paraje.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paraje
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paraje
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paraje, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paraje — Superfund (6 sites) and Nitrate (74 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Paraje
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 Paraje average
Your land is one point inside Paraje
Everything above resolves to Paraje 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 Paraje Average
Paraje Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Paraje
- ●One soil character for all of Paraje
- ●Frost dates read at Paraje's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paraje's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paraje
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paraje, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paraje averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paraje — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paraje average
How we know this about Paraje
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 Paraje’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 Paraje
When does frost risk typically end in Paraje?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paraje typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Paraje?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paraje typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 187 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paraje?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paraje sees about 187 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 11, about 152 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paraje?
The federal record around Paraje is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (74), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 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 Paraje?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paraje's scale — its 6b band and its 187-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paraje'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 Paraje’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paraje's own scale — its own ~187-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,569 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paraje's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paraje's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 25 and the ~187-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paraje, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paraje's boundary and the 3,569 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~187-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paraje'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 Paraje's 3,569 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cibola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cibola 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 Cibola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paraje's 3,569 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paraje you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,569 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Paraje-wide figureread your own land →