Spencerville, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spencerville, 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 Spencerville 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 Spencerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spencerville — the short answer
Spencerville, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 183 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~183
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Spencerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spencerville's 183-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spencerville
Each reading below is measured for Spencerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSpencerville runs about 183 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
MeasuredSpencerville 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 Spencerville is in
Spencerville sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Spencerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Juan County.
What Grows in Spencerville
Every plant below cleared Spencerville's own zone 6b and its 183-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spencerville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 21 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Spencerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spencerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDS CLASSIC AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AZTEC YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WOOLEYS TRAILER SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AZTEC MUNICIPAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- WILLIAMS AIREPAIR 29731Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CHAVEZ JOE RUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- CIRCLE K 1436Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SAN JUAN COUNTY DETENTION CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SAN JUAN COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SAN JUAN COUNTY (NMR04F002)Brownfields · 2.3 mi
- CITY OF AZTEC PUBLIC WORKS DEPT. YARDBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- AUTO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spencerville'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 Spencerville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spencerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spencerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spencerville, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Spencerville. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Spencerville
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 Spencerville average
Your land is one point inside Spencerville
Everything above resolves to Spencerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Spencerville Average
Spencerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Spencerville
- ●One soil character for all of Spencerville
- ●Frost dates read at Spencerville's scale: Apr 21 to Oct 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spencerville's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spencerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spencerville, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spencerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spencerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spencerville average
How we know this about Spencerville
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 Spencerville’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 Spencerville
When does frost risk typically end in Spencerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spencerville typically lands around Apr 21, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Spencerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spencerville typically arrives around Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 7, so the watching starts about Sep 21 — about 183 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spencerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spencerville sees about 183 frost-free days — roughly Apr 21 through Oct 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 12 to Oct 7, about 148 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spencerville?
The federal record around Spencerville is a meaningful one — 421 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Spencerville?
From about Sep 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spencerville's scale — its 6b band and its 183-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spencerville'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 Spencerville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spencerville's own scale — its own ~183-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,363 acres it covers and 421 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spencerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Spencerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 21 and Oct 21 and the ~183-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 421 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spencerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spencerville's boundary and the 3,363 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~183-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spencerville's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spencerville's 3,363 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Juan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Juan 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 San Juan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spencerville's 3,363 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spencerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,363 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Spencerville-wide figureread your own land →