Sacramento, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sacramento, 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 Sacramento 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 Sacramento — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sacramento — the short answer
Sacramento, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 181 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~181
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 7a is Sacramento's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sacramento's 181-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Sacramento's own 30-year record measures about 181 days between 28°F killing freezes — 34 days shorter than Otero County's ~215. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Sacramento's ~181-day season rather than the county figure — and the sun, slope and cold-air drainage on your specific lot move it again.
NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS (1991–2020), 30-year daily minimum record. Both figures are measured records — this town’s own and its county’s. A town with no record of its own is absent here rather than estimated.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sacramento
Each reading below is measured for Sacramento itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSacramento runs about 181 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
MeasuredSacramento sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Sacramento is in
Sacramento sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Sacramento's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Otero County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sacramento
Every plant below cleared Sacramento's own zone 7a and its 181-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sacramento?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
Documented around Sacramento
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sacramento checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 623 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sacramento
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sacramento. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SACRAMENTO WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- 17S.13E.15.130Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- NMDOT MAYHILL PATROL YARD 42 54Underground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- BARN DOOR MARKET AUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- MOUNTAIN PETROLEUM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- WAKEFIELD OIL MAYHILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
Measured from Sacramento'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 Sacramento.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sacramento
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.
Check your specific parcel in Sacramento
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 Sacramento average
Your land is one point inside Sacramento
Everything above resolves to Sacramento as a whole — and this is a town whose own 30-year record already runs a season its county’s does not. Your parcel sits at one point inside even that. 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 Sacramento Average
Sacramento Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sacramento
- ●One soil character for all of Sacramento
- ●Frost dates read at Sacramento's scale: Apr 27 to Oct 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sacramento's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sacramento
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sacramento, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sacramento averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sacramento — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sacramento average
How we know this about Sacramento
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 Sacramento’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 Sacramento
When does frost risk typically end in Sacramento?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sacramento typically lands around Apr 27, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Sacramento?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sacramento typically arrives around Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 11, so the watching starts about Sep 25 — about 181 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sacramento?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sacramento sees about 181 frost-free days — roughly Apr 27 through Oct 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 18 to Oct 11, about 146 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sacramento?
The federal record around Sacramento is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Sacramento?
From about Sep 25 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sacramento's scale — its 7a band and its 181-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sacramento'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 Sacramento’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sacramento's own scale — its own ~181-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,191 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sacramento's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sacramento's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 27 and Oct 25 and the ~181-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sacramento, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sacramento's boundary and the 4,191 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~181-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sacramento sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sacramento checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sacramento's 4,191 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sacramento's 4,191 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sacramento you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,191 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.9 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 Sacramento-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoSacramento sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides