Tatum, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Tatum, 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 Tatum 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 Tatum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tatum — the short answer
Tatum, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 7b is Tatum's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tatum's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tatum
Each reading below is measured for Tatum itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTatum runs about 220 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTatum sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Tatum is in
Tatum sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tatum's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lea County.
What Grows in Tatum
Every plant below cleared Tatum's own zone 7b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tatum?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Tatum
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tatum. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF TATUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- 12S.36E.28.100Nitrate · 1000 ft
- TATUM KEYLOCKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GANDY CORPBrownfields · 1700 ft
- SIMPSON LONNIE JUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WATSON INC WATSON TREATINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STRIPES #5060Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PERDUES AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TATUM CLINICBrownfields · 2300 ft
- ALLSUPS - NO63Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TATUM (TOWN OF)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TATUM MUNICIPAL SCHOOLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tatum'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 Tatum.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tatum
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tatum, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Tatum. 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 Tatum
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 Tatum average
Your land is one point inside Tatum
Everything above resolves to Tatum as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Tatum Average
Tatum Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Tatum
- ●One soil character for all of Tatum
- ●Frost dates read at Tatum's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tatum's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tatum
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tatum, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tatum averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tatum — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tatum average
How we know this about Tatum
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 Tatum’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 Tatum
When does frost risk typically end in Tatum?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tatum typically lands around Mar 30, 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 Apr 20.
When is the first frost in Tatum?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tatum typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tatum?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tatum sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 22, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tatum?
The federal record around Tatum is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tatum?
From about Oct 6 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tatum's scale — its 7b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tatum'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 Tatum’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tatum's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,014 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tatum's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tatum's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 5 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tatum, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tatum's boundary and the 1,014 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tatum's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tatum's 1,014 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lea County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lea 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 Lea County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tatum's 1,014 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tatum you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,014 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tatum-wide figureread your own land →
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