Archer City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Archer City, 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 Archer City 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 Archer City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Archer City — the short answer
Archer City, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 8a is Archer City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Archer City's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Archer City
Each reading below is measured for Archer City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArcher City runs about 258 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
MeasuredArcher City sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Archer City is in
Archer City sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Archer City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Archer County.
What Grows in Archer City
Every plant below cleared Archer City's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Archer City?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Archer City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Archer City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OODLES SUPERMART IUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ALLSUPS 298Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- 300 CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- ARCHER COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LUCKY DOLLAR 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ARCHER CITY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- NELSONS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BRIDWELL OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- U S A ROCK BITUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TEXAS DPS PATROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HUFFMAN SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Abercrombie Ranch-1Mining · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Archer City'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 Archer City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Archer City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Archer City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Archer City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Archer City — Mining (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (21 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Archer City
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 Archer City average
Your land is one point inside Archer City
Everything above resolves to Archer City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 city 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 Archer City Average
Archer City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Archer City
- ●One soil character for all of Archer City
- ●Frost dates read at Archer City's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Archer City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Archer City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Archer City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Archer City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Archer City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Archer City average
How we know this about Archer City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Archer City’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Archer City
When does frost risk typically end in Archer City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Archer City typically lands around Mar 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 Mar 30.
When is the first frost in Archer City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Archer City typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Archer City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Archer City sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 8, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Archer City?
The federal record around Archer City is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Archer City?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Archer City's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Archer City'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 Archer City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Archer City's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,507 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Archer City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Archer City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 22 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Archer City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Archer City's boundary and the 1,507 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Archer City's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Archer City's 1,507 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Archer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Archer 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 Archer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Archer City's 1,507 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Archer City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,507 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Archer City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasArcher City sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides