Bear Creek Ranch, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bear Creek Ranch, 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 Bear Creek Ranch 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 Bear Creek Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Creek Ranch — the short answer
Bear Creek Ranch, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 294 days between hard freezes, across 385 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~294
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 385 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 Dallas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bear Creek Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Creek Ranch's 294-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Creek Ranch
Each reading below is measured for Bear Creek Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBear Creek Ranch runs about 294 days between hard freezes (read from Dallas County, the closest normal to Bear Creek Ranch) — 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
MeasuredBear Creek Ranch 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 Bear Creek Ranch is in
Bear Creek Ranch sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bear Creek Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Bear Creek Ranch
Every plant below cleared Bear Creek Ranch's own zone 8b and its 294-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bear Creek Ranch?
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 Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Bear Creek Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Creek Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SYSTEM OPERATING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ONCOR SYSTEM OPERATING SERVICEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CITY OF LANCASTER, TXPFAS · 1.0 mi
- RED OAK MARKET & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DANA CORP MOBILE FLUID PRODUCTS DIVToxics Release Inventory · 1.8 mi
- BRASSCRAFT LANCASTERToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- BRASSCRAFT LANCASTERBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- COMMUNICATIONS TEST DESIGN INCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- GATEWAY 36Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WHISTLE STOP CONVENIENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BYRD W WHITE ESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- B G RENEAUUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Creek Ranch'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 Bear Creek Ranch.
Total Sites
543
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek Ranch
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
11 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bear Creek Ranch, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bear Creek Ranch — Superfund (11 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bear Creek Ranch
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 Bear Creek Ranch average
Your land is one point inside Bear Creek Ranch
Everything above resolves to Bear Creek Ranch as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 385 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dallas County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Bear Creek Ranch Average
Bear Creek Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bear Creek Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Creek Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at Bear Creek Ranch's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Creek Ranch's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Creek Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Creek Ranch, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Creek Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Creek Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Creek Ranch average
How we know this about Bear Creek Ranch
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 Dallas 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 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 Bear Creek Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Creek Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Creek Ranch typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Bear Creek Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bear Creek Ranch typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 294 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bear Creek Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bear Creek Ranch sees about 294 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 21, about 259 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Creek Ranch?
The federal record around Bear Creek Ranch is a meaningful one — 543 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (329), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bear Creek Ranch?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bear Creek Ranch's scale — its 8b band and its 294-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Creek Ranch'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 Bear Creek Ranch’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bear Creek Ranch's own scale — the 385 acres it covers and 543 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Creek Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 543 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Creek Ranch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Creek Ranch's boundary and the 385 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~294-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bear Creek Ranch's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bear Creek Ranch has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dallas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bear Creek Ranch's 385 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Creek Ranch's 385 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear Creek Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 385 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bear Creek Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
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