Taos, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, cranberry, lavender, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Taos, 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 Taos 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 Taos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Taos — the short answer
Taos, New Mexico: USDA zone 5b, about 158 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 5b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~158
- 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 5b is Taos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Taos's 158-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Taos
Each reading below is measured for Taos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTaos runs about 158 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
MeasuredTaos sits in USDA hardiness zone 5b.
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 Taos is in
Taos sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Taos's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taos County.
What Grows in Taos
Every plant below cleared Taos's own zone 5b and its 158-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Taos?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 11 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Taos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Taos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIT CARSON ELECTRICUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- GIANT 378Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALMART #873Brownfields · 1200 ft
- ALBERTSONS MARKET 2920/920Brownfields · 1900 ft
- TAOS COUNTY RD DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SOUTH TAOS PCE SITESuperfund · 2300 ft
- STOP AND GO LOCATION 04Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HOLY CROSS HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FRIDAY MOTORS INCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- SUPERVISORS OFFICE CARSON NFUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BOBS PRO SPEED OIL AND LUBEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CHAMPION XPRESS CARWASHBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Taos'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 Taos.
Total Sites
100
within ~10 miles of Taos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Taos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Taos
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Taos
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 Taos average
Your land is one point inside Taos
Everything above resolves to Taos as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Taos Average
Taos Average
- ●USDA Zones 5b, averaged across Taos
- ●One soil character for all of Taos
- ●Frost dates read at Taos's scale: May 6 to Oct 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Taos's 5b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Taos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Taos, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Taos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Taos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Taos average
How we know this about Taos
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 Taos’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 Taos
When does frost risk typically end in Taos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Taos typically lands around May 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Taos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Taos typically arrives around Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 27, so the watching starts about Sep 11 — about 158 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Taos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Taos sees about 158 frost-free days — roughly May 6 through Oct 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 27 to Sep 27, about 123 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Taos?
The federal record around Taos is a meaningful one — 100 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Taos?
From about Sep 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Taos's scale — its 5b band and its 158-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Taos'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 Taos’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Taos's own scale — its own ~158-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,872 acres it covers and 100 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Taos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 5bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Taos's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 6 and Oct 11 and the ~158-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 100 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Taos, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Taos's boundary and the 3,872 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 5b and a ~158-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Taos'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 Taos's 3,872 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taos County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taos 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 Taos County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Taos's 3,872 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Taos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,872 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Taos-wide figureread your own land →