Baird, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Baird, 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 Baird 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 Baird — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baird — the short answer
Baird, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Callahan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Callahan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Callahan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Callahan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Baird's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baird's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baird
Each reading below is measured for Baird itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBaird runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Callahan County, the closest normal to Baird) — 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
MeasuredBaird 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 Baird is in
Baird sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Baird's own centroid rather than borrowed from Callahan County.
What Grows in Baird
Every plant below cleared Baird's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baird?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Baird
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baird. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAIRD DRIVE INUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CALLAHAN COUNTY FARMERS COOP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- B & B COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CONTEL OF TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF BAIRDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HUGHES TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ALLSUPS 186Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- YESWAY 1053Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT ABIBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOPS 610Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HANNER CHRYSLERBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- VULCAN MATERIALS CO. ABILENE YATES OPS.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baird'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 Baird.
Total Sites
42
within ~10 miles of Baird
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baird
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baird
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baird, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Baird. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Baird
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 Baird average
Your land is one point inside Baird
Everything above resolves to Baird as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Callahan County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Baird Average
Baird Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Baird
- ●One soil character for all of Baird
- ●Frost dates read at Baird's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baird's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baird
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baird, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baird averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baird — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baird average
How we know this about Baird
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 Callahan County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Baird
When does frost risk typically end in Baird?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baird typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Baird?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baird typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baird?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baird sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 7, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baird?
The federal record around Baird is light — 42 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Baird?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baird's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baird'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 Baird’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Baird's own scale — the 1,700 acres it covers and 42 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baird's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 42 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baird, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baird's boundary and the 1,700 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baird's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Baird has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Callahan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baird's 1,700 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Callahan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Callahan 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 Callahan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baird's 1,700 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baird you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,700 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Baird-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBaird sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.