Pinedale, 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 Pinedale, 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 Pinedale 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 Pinedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pinedale — the short answer
Pinedale, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 172 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~172
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Pinedale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pinedale's 172-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pinedale
Each reading below is measured for Pinedale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPinedale runs about 172 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
MeasuredPinedale 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 Pinedale is in
Pinedale sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Pinedale's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Pinedale
Every plant below cleared Pinedale's own zone 6a and its 172-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pinedale?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 19 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Pinedale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pinedale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16N.15W.20.1314Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- PINEDALE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 16N.15W.20.100Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- 16N.15W.20.32Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- 16N.15W.20.1134Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 16N.15W.17.1431Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- 16N.15W.11.3323Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- 16N.15W.19.42Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 16N.16W.25.142Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 16N.16W.01.2344Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- 15N.15W.07.23Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- UNITED NUCLEAR CORP.Superfund · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pinedale'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 Pinedale.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pinedale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pinedale
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pinedale, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pinedale — Nitrate (70 sites) and Superfund (3 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pinedale
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 Pinedale average
Your land is one point inside Pinedale
Everything above resolves to Pinedale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Pinedale Average
Pinedale Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Pinedale
- ●One soil character for all of Pinedale
- ●Frost dates read at Pinedale's scale: Apr 30 to Oct 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pinedale's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pinedale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pinedale, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pinedale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pinedale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pinedale average
How we know this about Pinedale
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 Pinedale’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 Pinedale
When does frost risk typically end in Pinedale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pinedale typically lands around Apr 30, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Pinedale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pinedale typically arrives around Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 5, so the watching starts about Sep 19 — about 172 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pinedale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pinedale sees about 172 frost-free days — roughly Apr 30 through Oct 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 21 to Oct 5, about 137 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pinedale?
The federal record around Pinedale is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (70), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Pinedale?
From about Sep 19 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pinedale's scale — its 6a band and its 172-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pinedale'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 Pinedale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pinedale's own scale — its own ~172-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,598 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pinedale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pinedale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 30 and Oct 19 and the ~172-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pinedale, the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pinedale's boundary and the 6,598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~172-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pinedale'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 Pinedale's 6,598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKinley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKinley 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 McKinley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pinedale's 6,598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pinedale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,598 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.2 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 Pinedale-wide figureread your own land →