Sandia Park, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sandia Park, 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 Park 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 Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sandia Park — the short answer
Sandia Park, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 182 days between hard freezes, across 464 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~182
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 464 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 Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandia Park's 182-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Your town runs its own season
Sandia Park's own 30-year record measures about 182 days between 28°F killing freezes — 35 days shorter than Bernalillo County's ~217. Both are measured records, not estimates.
That gap is the whole reason a county average can mislead here. Plant against Sandia Park's ~182-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 Sandia Park
Each reading below is measured for Sandia Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSandia Park runs about 182 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 Park 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 Park is in
Sandia Park sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Sandia Park'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 Park
Every plant below cleared Sandia Park's own zone 7a and its 182-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sandia Park?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Even past midsummer there is room for a true fall garden here, and garlic planted near the close carries the momentum into next year.
Documented around Sandia Park
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sandia Park checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 458 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sandia Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sandia Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11N.05E.24.143Nitrate · 1000 ft
- 11N.05E.23.222BNitrate · 2000 ft
- 11N.05E.24.234 SP-02Nitrate · 2500 ft
- 11N.05E.24.412Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- 11N.05E.24.213Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.05E.24.241Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.05E.24.421Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.05E.25.211Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- 11N.05E.24.2213BNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N.05E.25.100Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N.05E.24.443BNitrate · 0.8 mi
- 11N.05E.24.443Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandia Park'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 Park.
Total Sites
607
within ~10 miles of Sandia Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sandia Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sandia Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandia Park, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 444 sites within ~10 miles of Sandia Park. 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 Park
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 Park average
Your land is one point inside Sandia Park
Everything above resolves to Sandia Park 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 Sandia Park Average
Sandia Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Sandia Park
- ●One soil character for all of Sandia Park
- ●Frost dates read at Sandia Park's scale: Apr 24 to Oct 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandia Park's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sandia Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandia Park, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandia Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandia Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandia Park average
How we know this about Sandia Park
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 Park’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 Park
When does frost risk typically end in Sandia Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandia Park typically lands around Apr 24, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Sandia Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sandia Park typically arrives around Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 9, so the watching starts about Sep 23 — about 182 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sandia Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandia Park sees about 182 frost-free days — roughly Apr 24 through Oct 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 15 to Oct 9, about 147 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandia Park?
The federal record around Sandia Park is a meaningful one — 607 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (444), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Park?
From about Sep 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sandia Park's scale — its 7a band and its 182-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandia Park'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 Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sandia Park's own scale — its own ~182-day season between 28°F freezes, the 464 acres it covers and 607 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandia Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sandia Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 24 and Oct 23 and the ~182-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 607 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sandia Park, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sandia Park's boundary and the 464 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~182-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Sandia Park sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sandia Park 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 Park's 464 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 Park's 464 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sandia Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 464 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Park-wide figureread your own land →