Peñasco, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Peñasco, 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 Peñasco 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 Peñasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Peñasco — the short answer
Peñasco, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 163 days between hard freezes, across 778 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~163
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 778 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 6a is Peñasco's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Peñasco's 163-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Peñasco
Each reading below is measured for Peñasco itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPeñasco runs about 163 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
MeasuredPeñasco sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Peñasco is in
Peñasco sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Peñasco's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Taos County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Peñasco
Every plant below cleared Peñasco's own zone 6a and its 163-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Peñasco?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Peñasco
Survey cells within 31 miles of Peñasco checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 428 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Peñasco
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Peñasco. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 22N.12E.05.1413Nitrate · 350 ft
- PACHECOS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- A 1 AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRAVELERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 22N.12E.05.442Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 23N.12E.28.344Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- PENASCO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SIPAPU RECREATION DEVELOPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CHEVRON SERVICE STATION 75900 SIPAPUUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- TRES RITOS LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- GONZALES GABRIELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 22N.11E.02.214Nitrate · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Peñasco'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 Peñasco.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Peñasco
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Peñasco
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Peñasco, Mining runs higher than the national average — 19 sites within ~10 miles of Peñasco. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Peñasco
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 Peñasco average
Your land is one point inside Peñasco
Everything above resolves to Peñasco as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 778 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 Peñasco Average
Peñasco Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Peñasco
- ●One soil character for all of Peñasco
- ●Frost dates read at Peñasco's scale: May 3 to Oct 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Peñasco's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Peñasco
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Peñasco, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Peñasco averages can't show:
We read public map data around Peñasco — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Peñasco average
How we know this about Peñasco
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 Peñasco’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 Peñasco
When does frost risk typically end in Peñasco?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Peñasco typically lands around May 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Peñasco?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Peñasco typically arrives around Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 29, so the watching starts about Sep 13 — about 163 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Peñasco?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Peñasco sees about 163 frost-free days — roughly May 3 through Oct 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 24 to Sep 29, about 128 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Peñasco?
The federal record around Peñasco is light — 49 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (19), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Peñasco?
From about Sep 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Peñasco's scale — its 6a band and its 163-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Peñasco'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 Peñasco’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Peñasco's own scale — its own ~163-day season between 28°F freezes, the 778 acres it covers and 49 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Peñasco's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Peñasco's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 3 and Oct 13 and the ~163-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 49 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Peñasco, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Peñasco's boundary and the 778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~163-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Peñasco sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Peñasco 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 Peñasco's 778 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taos 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 Taos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Peñasco's 778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Peñasco you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 778 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Peñasco-wide figureread your own land →