Pie Town, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pie Town, 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 Pie Town 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 Pie Town — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pie Town — the short answer
Pie Town, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 130 days between hard freezes, across 37K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~130
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 37K 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 Pie Town's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pie Town's 130-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pie Town
Each reading below is measured for Pie Town itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPie Town runs about 130 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredPie Town 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 Pie Town is in
Pie Town sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pie Town's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Catron County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Mountains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pie Town
Every plant below cleared Pie Town's own zone 6a and its 130-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pie Town?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even here the calendar’s edges hold value: thirty-day greens late in the window, then garlic and a rested bed for spring.
What's on the federal record near Pie Town
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pie Town. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PIE TOWN TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- CARVERS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- OLD PHILIPS STATION ABANDONEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 01N.12W.19.Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- NAVAJO LODGE ABANDONED STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- DATIL RSUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
Measured from Pie Town'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 Pie Town.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pie Town
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Pie Town
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 Pie Town average
Your land is one point inside Pie Town
Everything above resolves to Pie Town as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 37K 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 Pie Town Average
Pie Town Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pie Town
- ●One soil character for all of Pie Town
- ●Frost dates read at Pie Town's scale: May 27 to Oct 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pie Town's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pie Town
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pie Town, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pie Town averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pie Town — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pie Town average
How we know this about Pie Town
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 Pie Town’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 Pie Town
When does frost risk typically end in Pie Town?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pie Town typically lands around May 27, 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 Jun 17.
When is the first frost in Pie Town?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pie Town typically arrives around Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 20, so the watching starts about Sep 4 — about 130 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pie Town?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pie Town sees about 130 frost-free days — roughly May 27 through Oct 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 17 to Sep 20, about 95 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pie Town?
The federal record around Pie Town is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles 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 gardeners stretch the season in Pie Town?
With about 130 frost-free days between hard freezes, Pie Town rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 158 to 186 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 27 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Pie Town's scale — its 6a band and its 130-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pie Town'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 Pie Town’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pie Town's own scale — its own ~130-day season between 28°F freezes, the 36,652 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pie Town's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pie Town's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 27 and Oct 4 and the ~130-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pie Town, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pie Town's boundary and the 36,652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~130-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pie Town sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pie Town's 36,652 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Catron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Catron 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 Catron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pie Town's 36,652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pie Town you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 36,652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.6 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 Pie Town-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoPie Town sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides