Rivers, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Rivers, 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 Rivers 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 Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rivers — the short answer
Rivers, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 169 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~169
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 6b is Rivers's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rivers's 169-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rivers
Each reading below is measured for Rivers itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRivers runs about 169 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
MeasuredRivers sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Rivers is in
Rivers sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Rivers's own centroid rather than borrowed from Catron County.
What Grows in Rivers
Every plant below cleared Rivers's own zone 6b and its 169-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rivers?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Rivers
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rivers. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K AND B TIMBERWORKSBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- BESSIRE MATILDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- BLACK GOLD STATION BUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- VICS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- RESERVE PATROL 4657Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- RESERVE ADMINISTRATIVE SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- SNOW LAKE RECREATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- COMPANY SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- NAVOPACHE ELECTRIC COOP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PINE LAWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MICHELLES STORE LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 07S.19W.01.340ANitrate · 3.3 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rivers'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 Rivers.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Rivers
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rivers
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rivers
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.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Rivers
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 Rivers average
Your land is one point inside Rivers
Everything above resolves to Rivers as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Rivers Average
Rivers Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Rivers
- ●One soil character for all of Rivers
- ●Frost dates read at Rivers's scale: May 4 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rivers's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rivers
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rivers, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rivers averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rivers average
How we know this about Rivers
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 Rivers’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 Rivers
When does frost risk typically end in Rivers?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rivers typically lands around May 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Rivers?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rivers typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 169 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rivers?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rivers sees about 169 frost-free days — roughly May 4 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 25 to Oct 6, about 134 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rivers?
The federal record around Rivers is a meaningful one — 17 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (13), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.4 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 I protect my plants from frost in Rivers?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rivers's scale — its 6b band and its 169-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rivers'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 Rivers’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Rivers's own scale — its own ~169-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,435 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rivers's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Rivers's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 4 and Oct 20 and the ~169-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rivers, the closest Brownfields record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rivers's boundary and the 1,435 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~169-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rivers's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico MountainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rivers's 1,435 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 Rivers's 1,435 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rivers you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,435 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.4 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 Rivers-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoRivers sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides