Timberlake, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Timberlake, 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 Timberlake 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 Timberlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Timberlake — the short answer
Timberlake, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 146 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~146
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 6a is Timberlake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Timberlake's 146-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Timberlake
Each reading below is measured for Timberlake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTimberlake runs about 146 days between hard freezes — a short growing season.
Long-maturing crops like melons, sweet potatoes, and winter squash can run out of runway before the first hard freeze, ripening late or not at all.
Lead with fast-maturing varieties, and stretch the season on both ends with cold frames, low tunnels, or a greenhouse.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTimberlake sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a.
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 Timberlake is in
Timberlake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Timberlake's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: McKinley County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Timberlake
Every plant below cleared Timberlake's own zone 6a and its 146-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Timberlake?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a season this compact, fast finishers and cold-hardy greens do the late work, and garlic tucked in before the freeze repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Timberlake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Timberlake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 11N.16W.35.431Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- 11N.16W.35.341Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- NAVAJO - RIO PESCADO DIP VATSuperfund · 4.0 mi
- RAMAH TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- RAMAH CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- EL MORRO RV PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- LA TINAJA TRADING POST AUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- EL MORRO NATIONAL MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 12N.15W.29.231Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- RAMAH HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- LEWIS TRADE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- 11N.16W.35.443Nitrate · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Timberlake'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 Timberlake.
Total Sites
39
within ~10 miles of Timberlake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Timberlake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Timberlake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Timberlake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Timberlake. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Timberlake
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 Timberlake average
Your land is one point inside Timberlake
Everything above resolves to Timberlake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Timberlake Average
Timberlake Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Timberlake
- ●One soil character for all of Timberlake
- ●Frost dates read at Timberlake's scale: May 17 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Timberlake's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Timberlake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Timberlake, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Timberlake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Timberlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Timberlake average
How we know this about Timberlake
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 Timberlake’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 Timberlake
When does frost risk typically end in Timberlake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Timberlake typically lands around May 17, 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 Jun 7.
When is the first frost in Timberlake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Timberlake typically arrives around Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Sep 26, so the watching starts about Sep 10 — about 146 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Timberlake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Timberlake sees about 146 frost-free days — roughly May 17 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jun 7 to Sep 26, about 111 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Timberlake?
The federal record around Timberlake is a meaningful one — 39 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (28), the nearest Nitrate record about 3.9 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 gardeners stretch the season in Timberlake?
With about 146 frost-free days between hard freezes, Timberlake rewards the classic extension moves: floating row cover buys roughly two to four extra weeks at each shoulder — on this season that is a working window nearer 174 to 202 days — and cold frames or low tunnels buy more. Starting transplants indoors ahead of the May 17 hard-freeze normal stretches the season without touching the calendar.
Everything above is measured at Timberlake's scale — its 6a band and its 146-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Timberlake'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 Timberlake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Timberlake's own scale — its own ~146-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,223 acres it covers and 39 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Timberlake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Timberlake's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 17 and Oct 10 and the ~146-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 39 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Timberlake, the closest Nitrate record about 3.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Timberlake's boundary and the 10,223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~146-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Timberlake sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Timberlake's 10,223 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McKinley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McKinley 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 McKinley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Timberlake's 10,223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Timberlake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,223 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 3.9 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 Timberlake-wide figureread your own land →