Agua Dulce, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Agua Dulce, 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 Agua Dulce 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 Agua Dulce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Agua Dulce — the short answer
Agua Dulce, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 8b is Agua Dulce's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Agua Dulce's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Agua Dulce
Each reading below is measured for Agua Dulce itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAgua Dulce runs about 278 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAgua Dulce sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Agua Dulce is in
Agua Dulce sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Agua Dulce's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Agua Dulce
Every plant below cleared Agua Dulce's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Agua Dulce?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Agua Dulce
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HORIZON REGIONAL MUDPFAS · 2.1 mi
- PASEO DEL ESTE MUD 1PFAS · 2.1 mi
- LOWER VALLEY WATER DISTRICTPFAS · 2.1 mi
- JL-49-24-418Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- LAS BANDERAS STOP AND SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- EL PASO HORIZON CITY 852 CDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- MEDIWASTE DISPOSALBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- HORIZON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- RESYCO INCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7680Brownfields · 3.7 mi
- CEMCO PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- EL PASO DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Agua Dulce'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 Agua Dulce.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Agua Dulce, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Agua Dulce
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 Agua Dulce average
Your land is one point inside Agua Dulce
Everything above resolves to Agua Dulce as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Agua Dulce Average
Agua Dulce Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Agua Dulce
- ●One soil character for all of Agua Dulce
- ●Frost dates read at Agua Dulce's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Agua Dulce's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Agua Dulce
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Agua Dulce, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Agua Dulce averages can't show:
We read public map data around Agua Dulce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Agua Dulce average
How we know this about Agua Dulce
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 Agua Dulce’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 Agua Dulce
When does frost risk typically end in Agua Dulce?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Agua Dulce typically lands around Feb 20, 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 Mar 13.
When is the first frost in Agua Dulce?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Agua Dulce typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Agua Dulce?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Agua Dulce sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 11, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Agua Dulce?
The federal record around Agua Dulce is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest PFAS record about 2.1 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 Agua Dulce?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Agua Dulce's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Agua Dulce'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 Agua Dulce’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Agua Dulce's own scale — its own ~278-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,990 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Agua Dulce's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Agua Dulce's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 20 and Nov 25 and the ~278-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Agua Dulce, the closest PFAS record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Agua Dulce's boundary and the 4,990 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Agua Dulce's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Agua Dulce's 4,990 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Agua Dulce's 4,990 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Agua Dulce you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,990 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 2.1 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 Agua Dulce-wide figureread your own land →