Pastura, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pastura, 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 Pastura 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 Pastura — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pastura — the short answer
Pastura, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 209 days between hard freezes, across 222 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~209
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 222 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 Pastura's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pastura's 209-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pastura
Each reading below is measured for Pastura itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPastura runs about 209 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
MeasuredPastura 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 Pastura is in
Pastura sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pastura's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guadalupe County.
What Grows in Pastura
Every plant below cleared Pastura's own zone 7a and its 209-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pastura?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Pastura
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pastura. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- American Uranium ProspectMining · 5.2 mi
- Stauber MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Pastura MineMining · 6.3 mi
- Porcupine ProspectMining · 9.4 mi
- Pintada GroupMining · 9.7 mi
- Pintada MineMining · 9.9 mi
Measured from Pastura'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 Pastura.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pastura
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Pastura
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 Pastura average
Your land is one point inside Pastura
Everything above resolves to Pastura as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 222 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 Pastura Average
Pastura Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Pastura
- ●One soil character for all of Pastura
- ●Frost dates read at Pastura's scale: Apr 7 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pastura's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pastura
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pastura, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pastura averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pastura — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pastura average
How we know this about Pastura
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 Pastura’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 Pastura
When does frost risk typically end in Pastura?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pastura typically lands around Apr 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pastura?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pastura typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 209 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pastura?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pastura sees about 209 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 19, about 174 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pastura?
The federal record around Pastura shows 7 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (7), the nearest Mining record about 5.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pastura?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pastura's scale — its 7a band and its 209-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pastura'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 Pastura’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pastura's own scale — its own ~209-day season between 28°F freezes, the 222 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pastura's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pastura's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Nov 2 and the ~209-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pastura, the closest Mining record about 5.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pastura's boundary and the 222 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~209-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pastura's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pastura's 222 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guadalupe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pastura's 222 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pastura you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 222 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 5.2 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 Pastura-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoPastura sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides