Timberon, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Timberon, 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 Timberon 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 Timberon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Timberon — the short answer
Timberon, New Mexico: USDA zone 7b, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 13K 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 Timberon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Timberon's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Timberon
Each reading below is measured for Timberon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTimberon runs about 208 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
MeasuredTimberon 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 Timberon is in
Timberon sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Temperate Sierras. That is read at Timberon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Otero County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Timberon
Every plant below cleared Timberon's own zone 7b and its 208-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Timberon?
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 Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Timberon
Survey cells within 31 miles of Timberon checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 628 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Timberon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Timberon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 19S.12E.23.431Nitrate · 600 ft
- TLC HOMES AND AUTOBrownfields · 2500 ft
- 19S.12E.22.211Nitrate · 0.8 mi
Measured from Timberon'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 Timberon.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Timberon
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Timberon
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 Timberon average
Your land is one point inside Timberon
Everything above resolves to Timberon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 13K 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 Timberon Average
Timberon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Timberon
- ●One soil character for all of Timberon
- ●Frost dates read at Timberon's scale: Apr 12 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Timberon's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Timberon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Timberon, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Timberon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Timberon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Timberon average
How we know this about Timberon
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 Timberon’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 Timberon
When does frost risk typically end in Timberon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Timberon typically lands around Apr 12, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Timberon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Timberon typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 208 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Timberon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Timberon sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 23, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Timberon?
The federal record around Timberon is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (4), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Timberon?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Timberon's scale — its 7b band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Timberon'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 Timberon’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Timberon's own scale — its own ~208-day season between 28°F freezes, the 12,986 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Timberon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Timberon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Nov 6 and the ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Timberon, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Timberon's boundary and the 12,986 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Timberon sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Mountains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Timberon 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 Timberon's 12,986 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Otero County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Otero 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 Otero County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Timberon's 12,986 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Timberon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,986 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Timberon-wide figureread your own land →
More in New Mexico
Wider growing context
What grows across New MexicoTimberon sits outside our named growing regions, so New Mexico as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides