Valencia, New Mexico, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, 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.
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Valencia — the short answer
Valencia, New Mexico: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- 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 7a is Valencia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valencia's 205-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 205 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
MeasuredValencia sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Arizona/New Mexico Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Valencia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Valencia County.
What Grows in Valencia
Every plant below cleared Valencia's own zone 7a and its 205-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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Valencia
Survey cells within 31 miles of Valencia checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 469 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Valencia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valencia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARBLE FABRICATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN #738Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 07N.02E.26.332Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- SMITH'S 414Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- APODACAS SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VEGAS ROADUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OLD VALENCIA SCHOOL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GIANT 33Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SMITHS FOOD AND DRUG #414Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOSQUE AUTO BODYBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 07N.03E.30.321Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- ALBERTSONS MARKET 1919/919Brownfields · 1.0 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.
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 (64 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 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 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 Valencia Average
Valencia Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Valencia
- ●One soil character for all of Valencia
- ●Frost dates read at Valencia's scale: Apr 7 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valencia's 7a
- ✓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 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Valencia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valencia typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valencia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valencia sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 7 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 28 to Oct 15, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valencia?
The federal record around Valencia is a meaningful one — 180 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Valencia?
From about Sep 29 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valencia's scale — its 7a band and its 205-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
7 of the readings below were taken at Valencia's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,270 acres it covers and 180 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valencia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valencia's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 7 and Oct 29 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 180 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valencia, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valencia's boundary and the 1,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valencia's own centroid, the Arizona/New Mexico PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Valencia 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 Valencia's 1,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Valencia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Valencia 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 Valencia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valencia's 1,270 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 1,270 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 →