Tse Bonito, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Tse Bonito, 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 Tse Bonito 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 Tse Bonito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tse Bonito — the short answer
Tse Bonito, New Mexico: USDA zone 6a, about 154 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- May 9
- 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
- ~154
- 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 6a is Tse Bonito's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tse Bonito's 154-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tse Bonito
Each reading below is measured for Tse Bonito itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTse Bonito runs about 154 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
MeasuredTse Bonito 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 Tse Bonito is in
Tse Bonito sits in the Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Tse Bonito's own centroid rather than borrowed from McKinley County.
What Grows in Tse Bonito
Every plant below cleared Tse Bonito's own zone 6a and its 154-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tse Bonito?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Apr 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near May 9 (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. The tail of the season still works: sixty-day crops into late summer, quick greens after, garlic last of all.
What's on the federal record near Tse Bonito
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tse Bonito. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 16N.21W.01.43Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- NR108.0065X0614Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- NR108.0080X0615Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- NR108.0029X0588Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- NR108.0100X0594Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- 16N.20W.06.3444 TB2B OBS WELL AT MCKINLEY MINENitrate · 1.5 mi
- 16N.20W.06.4334 TB2C OBS WELL AT MCKINLEY MINENitrate · 1.6 mi
- 17N.21W.35.44Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- 17N.21W.35.41BNitrate · 2.0 mi
- 17N.21W.35.41Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- 16N.20W.18.000Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- GIANT DBA THRIFTWAY 7320Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tse Bonito'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 Tse Bonito.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Tse Bonito
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tse Bonito
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tse Bonito
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tse Bonito, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tse Bonito — Nitrate (88 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Tse Bonito
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 Tse Bonito average
Your land is one point inside Tse Bonito
Everything above resolves to Tse Bonito 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 Tse Bonito Average
Tse Bonito Average
- ●USDA Zones 6a, averaged across Tse Bonito
- ●One soil character for all of Tse Bonito
- ●Frost dates read at Tse Bonito's scale: May 9 to Oct 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tse Bonito's 6a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tse Bonito
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tse Bonito, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tse Bonito averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tse Bonito — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tse Bonito average
How we know this about Tse Bonito
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 Tse Bonito’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 Tse Bonito
When does frost risk typically end in Tse Bonito?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tse Bonito typically lands around May 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Tse Bonito?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tse Bonito 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 154 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tse Bonito?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tse Bonito sees about 154 frost-free days — roughly May 9 through Oct 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 30 to Sep 26, about 119 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tse Bonito?
The federal record around Tse Bonito is a meaningful one — 108 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (88), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Tse Bonito?
From about Sep 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tse Bonito's scale — its 6a band and its 154-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tse Bonito'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 Tse Bonito’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tse Bonito's own scale — its own ~154-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,358 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tse Bonito's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tse Bonito's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about May 9 and Oct 10 and the ~154-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tse Bonito, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tse Bonito's boundary and the 4,358 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6a and a ~154-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tse Bonito'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 Tse Bonito's 4,358 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 Tse Bonito's 4,358 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tse Bonito you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,358 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Tse Bonito-wide figureread your own land →