Valencia, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, blackberry, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Valencia, 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 Valencia 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 Valencia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valencia — the short answer
Valencia, New Mexico: USDA zone 6b, about 177 days between hard freezes, across 992 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~177
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 992 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 6b is Valencia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valencia's 177-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valencia
Each reading below is measured for Valencia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValencia runs about 177 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
MeasuredValencia sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Valencia is in
Valencia sits in the Southern Rockies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Northwestern Forested Mountains. That is read at Valencia's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Santa Fe County is mostly Arizona/New Mexico Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Valencia
Every plant below cleared Valencia's own zone 6b and its 177-day season. Each card opens that plant's New Mexico profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valencia?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 20 — 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 Valencia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valencia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Paytiamo DepositMining · 0.7 mi
- PaytianoMining · 0.7 mi
- GLORIETA 2.0 INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- GLORIETA 2.0 INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- KunklinMining · 3.1 mi
- Fairview Lode MineMining · 3.6 mi
- HONEY BOY HAVEN INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- FORKED LIGHTNING RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- WILFRED PADILLA FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- SANTA FE COUNTY SOUTH SECTORPFAS · 5.2 mi
- 15N.10E.23.100Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- 16N.10E.33 SEBASTIAN DE VARGAS GRANTNitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valencia'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 Valencia.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Valencia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valencia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valencia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valencia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valencia — Nitrate (24 sites) and Mining (4 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.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Valencia
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 Valencia average
Your land is one point inside Valencia
Everything above resolves to Valencia as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 992 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 Valencia Average
Valencia Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Valencia
- ●One soil character for all of Valencia
- ●Frost dates read at Valencia's scale: Apr 26 to Oct 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valencia's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valencia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valencia, New Mexico — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valencia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valencia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valencia average
How we know this about Valencia
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 Valencia’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 Valencia
When does frost risk typically end in Valencia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valencia typically lands around Apr 26, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Valencia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valencia typically arrives around Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 6, so the watching starts about Sep 20 — about 177 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valencia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valencia sees about 177 frost-free days — roughly Apr 26 through Oct 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 17 to Oct 6, about 142 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valencia?
The federal record around Valencia shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (24), the nearest Mining record about 0.7 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valencia?
From about Sep 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valencia's scale — its 6b band and its 177-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valencia'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 Valencia’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valencia's own scale — its own ~177-day season between 28°F freezes, the 992 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valencia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valencia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 26 and Oct 20 and the ~177-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valencia, the closest Mining record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valencia's boundary and the 992 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~177-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Valencia sits in the Southern Rockies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valencia's 992 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Fe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Fe 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 Santa Fe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valencia's 992 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valencia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 992 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 0.7 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 Valencia-wide figureread your own land →