Regina, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, cranberry, lavender, 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 Regina, 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 Regina 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 Regina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Regina — the short answer
Regina, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 133 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~133
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Regina's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Regina's 133-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Regina
Each reading below is measured for Regina itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRegina runs about 133 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
MeasuredRegina 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 Regina is in
Regina sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Regina's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Sandoval County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Regina
Every plant below cleared Regina's own zone 5b and its 133-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Regina?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Regina
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Regina. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BRETHREN NAVAJO MISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REGINA NM RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 23N.01W.27.233Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AmericanMining · 2.9 mi
- ArroyaMining · 2.9 mi
- White Flow #1 MineMining · 3.5 mi
- WhitefloMining · 3.7 mi
- 23N.02W.13.333Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- Tjbd 1Mining · 4.3 mi
- Gallina ProspectMining · 4.5 mi
- VALDEZ BENNYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- ConquerorMining · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Regina'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 Regina.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Regina
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Regina
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Regina, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Regina — Mining (10 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Regina
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 Regina average
Your land is one point inside Regina
Everything above resolves to Regina as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Regina Average
Regina Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Regina
- ●One soil character for all of Regina
- ●Frost dates read at Regina's scale: May 22 to Oct 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Regina's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Regina
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Regina, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Regina averages can't show:
We read public map data around Regina — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Regina average
How we know this about Regina
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 Regina’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 Regina
When does frost risk typically end in Regina?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Regina typically lands around May 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Regina?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Regina typically arrives around Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 18, so the watching starts about Sep 2 — about 133 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Regina?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Regina sees about 133 frost-free days — roughly May 22 through Oct 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 12 to Sep 18, about 98 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Regina?
The federal record around Regina is a meaningful one — 36 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 gardeners stretch the season in Regina?
With about 133 frost-free days between hard freezes, Regina 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 161 to 189 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 22 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Regina's scale — its 5b band and its 133-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Regina'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 Regina’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Regina's own scale — its own ~133-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,652 acres it covers and 36 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Regina's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Regina's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 22 and Oct 2 and the ~133-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 36 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Regina, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Regina's boundary and the 4,652 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~133-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Regina 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 Regina's 4,652 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sandoval County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sandoval 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 Sandoval County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Regina's 4,652 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Regina you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,652 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Regina-wide figureread your own land →
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