Sunland Park, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Sunland 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 Sunland 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 Sunland Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunland Park — the short answer
Sunland Park, New Mexico: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 8b is Sunland Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunland Park's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunland Park
Each reading below is measured for Sunland Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunland Park runs about 282 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSunland Park sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Sunland Park is in
Sunland Park sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Sunland Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Doña Ana County.
What Grows in Sunland Park
Every plant below cleared Sunland Park's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunland Park?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Sunland Park
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sunland Park 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 Sunland Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunland Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JL-49-12-118Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- MBOWN-199 - 28S.03E.26.344B (ISC-5B/ISC-5D)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- MBOWN-198 - 28S.03E.26.344A (ISC-5A/ISC-5S)Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- 29S.03E.03.223 EXPLNitrate · 1.2 mi
- EL PASO COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ELPS NORTH XA0032Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NO 15 FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WESTSIDE MAINTENANCE BRANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PHILLIPS AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SPUR SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HOWDYS 301Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE 2708515Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunland 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 Sunland Park.
Total Sites
687
within ~10 miles of Sunland Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunland Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunland Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunland Park, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 432 sites within ~10 miles of Sunland Park. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunland 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 Sunland Park average
Your land is one point inside Sunland Park
Everything above resolves to Sunland Park as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Sunland Park Average
Sunland Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sunland Park
- ●One soil character for all of Sunland Park
- ●Frost dates read at Sunland Park's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunland Park's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunland Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunland Park, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunland Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunland Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunland Park average
How we know this about Sunland Park
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 Sunland 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 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 Sunland Park
When does frost risk typically end in Sunland Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunland Park typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 13.
When is the first frost in Sunland Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunland Park typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunland Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunland Park sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunland Park?
The federal record around Sunland Park is a meaningful one — 687 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (432), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Sunland Park?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunland Park's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunland 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 Sunland Park’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Sunland Park's own scale — its own ~282-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,430 acres it covers and 687 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunland Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunland Park's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 20 and Nov 29 and the ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 687 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunland Park, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunland Park's boundary and the 9,430 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunland Park's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sunland 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 Sunland Park's 9,430 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Doña Ana County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Doña Ana 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 Doña Ana County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunland Park's 9,430 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunland 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 9,430 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 Sunland Park-wide figureread your own land →
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