Red River, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Red River, 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 Red River 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 Red River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red River — the short answer
Red River, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 127 days between hard freezes, across 650 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Sep 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~127
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 650 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 5b is Red River's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red River's 127-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red River
Each reading below is measured for Red River itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRed River runs about 127 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
MeasuredRed River sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Red River is in
Red River sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Red River'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 Red River
Every plant below cleared Red River's own zone 5b and its 127-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red River?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Sep 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. When the window is tight, the fall moves are quick ones — baby greens, radishes, and garlic set for next season.
What's on the federal record near Red River
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red River. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CALHOUN TED MUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- RED RIVER CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- RED RIVER SKI AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GRIFFIN JACK AUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Ajax Tunnel ProspectMining · 0.6 mi
- ORTIZ AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Dyke Tunnel ProspectMining · 0.7 mi
- 29N.14E.35.343Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHERN EXPOSURE, INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Copper King MineMining · 0.8 mi
- Red River DistrictMining · 0.9 mi
- Silver Tip GroupMining · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red River'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 Red River.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red River
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red River
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red River, Mining runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Red River. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Red River
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 Red River average
Your land is one point inside Red River
Everything above resolves to Red River as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 650 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 Red River Average
Red River Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Red River
- ●One soil character for all of Red River
- ●Frost dates read at Red River's scale: May 25 to Sep 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red River's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red River
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red River, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red River averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red River — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red River average
How we know this about Red River
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 Red River’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 Red River
When does frost risk typically end in Red River?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red River typically lands around May 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Red River?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red River typically arrives around Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 15, so the watching starts about Aug 30 — about 127 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red River?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red River sees about 127 frost-free days — roughly May 25 through Sep 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 15 to Sep 15, about 92 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red River?
The federal record around Red River runs heavier than most — 65 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do gardeners stretch the season in Red River?
With about 127 frost-free days between hard freezes, Red River 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 155 to 183 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 25 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Red River's scale — its 5b band and its 127-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red River'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 Red River’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Red River's own scale — its own ~127-day season between 28°F freezes, the 650 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red River's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Red River's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 25 and Sep 29 and the ~127-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red River, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red River's boundary and the 650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~127-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Red River sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red River's 650 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 Red River's 650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red River you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Red River-wide figureread your own land →