Sandia Knolls, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Sandia Knolls, 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 Sandia Knolls 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 Sandia Knolls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sandia Knolls — the short answer
Sandia Knolls, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 190 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~190
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Sandia Knolls's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandia Knolls's 190-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sandia Knolls
Each reading below is measured for Sandia Knolls itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSandia Knolls runs about 190 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
MeasuredSandia Knolls 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 Sandia Knolls is in
Sandia Knolls sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Sandia Knolls's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bernalillo County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Sandia Knolls
Every plant below cleared Sandia Knolls's own zone 7a and its 190-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sandia Knolls?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — 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 Sandia Knolls
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sandia Knolls checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 461 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sandia Knolls
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sandia Knolls. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11N.06E.28.232Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 11N.06E.21.133Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- SANDIA PEAK SKI AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HENDERSON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 11N.06E.28.412Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 11N.06E.28.322Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- 11N.06E.20.244Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11N.06E.28.413Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 11N.06E.22.444Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11N.06E.28.323Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- 11N.06E.20.223Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 11N.06E.27.342Nitrate · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandia Knolls'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 Sandia Knolls.
Total Sites
437
within ~10 miles of Sandia Knolls
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sandia Knolls
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sandia Knolls
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandia Knolls, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 366 sites within ~10 miles of Sandia Knolls. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sandia Knolls
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 Sandia Knolls average
Your land is one point inside Sandia Knolls
Everything above resolves to Sandia Knolls as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Sandia Knolls Average
Sandia Knolls Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sandia Knolls
- ●One soil character for all of Sandia Knolls
- ●Frost dates read at Sandia Knolls's scale: Apr 20 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandia Knolls's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sandia Knolls
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandia Knolls, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandia Knolls averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandia Knolls — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandia Knolls average
How we know this about Sandia Knolls
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 Sandia Knolls’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 Sandia Knolls
When does frost risk typically end in Sandia Knolls?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandia Knolls typically lands around Apr 20, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Sandia Knolls?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sandia Knolls typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 190 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sandia Knolls?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandia Knolls sees about 190 frost-free days — roughly Apr 20 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 11 to Oct 13, about 155 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandia Knolls?
The federal record around Sandia Knolls is a meaningful one — 437 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (366), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Sandia Knolls?
From about Sep 27 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sandia Knolls's scale — its 7a band and its 190-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandia Knolls'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 Sandia Knolls’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sandia Knolls's own scale — its own ~190-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,794 acres it covers and 437 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandia Knolls's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sandia Knolls's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 20 and Oct 27 and the ~190-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 437 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sandia Knolls, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sandia Knolls's boundary and the 1,794 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~190-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sandia Knolls sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sandia Knolls 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 Sandia Knolls's 1,794 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bernalillo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bernalillo 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 Bernalillo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sandia Knolls's 1,794 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sandia Knolls you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,794 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Sandia Knolls-wide figureread your own land →