Roswell, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Roswell, 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 Roswell 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 Roswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Roswell — the short answer
Roswell, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 19K 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 7b is Roswell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Roswell's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Roswell
Each reading below is measured for Roswell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRoswell runs about 234 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredRoswell sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Roswell is in
Roswell sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Roswell's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Chaves County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Roswell
Every plant below cleared Roswell's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Roswell?
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 Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Roswell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Roswell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOBBS ST SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ALLSUPS - NO120Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SHERWIN-WILLIAMS #707540Brownfields · 2000 ft
- EASTERN NM MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FINA 82Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ALLSUPS 286Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CASA MARIA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- K MART STORE 7017Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- OLD STARKEY MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWN AND COUNTRY 139Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SECURITY SELF STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNITED EXPRESS #690Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Roswell'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 Roswell.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Roswell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Roswell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Roswell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Roswell — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (154 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Roswell
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 Roswell average
Your land is one point inside Roswell
Everything above resolves to Roswell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 19K 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 city 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 Roswell Average
Roswell Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Roswell
- ●One soil character for all of Roswell
- ●Frost dates read at Roswell's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Roswell's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Roswell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Roswell, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Roswell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Roswell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Roswell average
How we know this about Roswell
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Roswell’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Roswell
When does frost risk typically end in Roswell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Roswell typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 12.
When is the first frost in Roswell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Roswell typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Roswell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Roswell sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 28, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Roswell?
The federal record around Roswell is a meaningful one — 474 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Roswell?
From about Oct 12 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 Nov 11 (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 Nov 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Roswell's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Roswell'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 Roswell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Roswell's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 19,018 acres it covers and 474 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Roswell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Roswell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 11 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 474 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Roswell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Roswell's boundary and the 19,018 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Roswell sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Roswell's 19,018 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chaves County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chaves 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 Chaves County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Roswell's 19,018 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Roswell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,018 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Roswell-wide figureread your own land →