Bellmead, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bellmead, 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 Bellmead 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 Bellmead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellmead — the short answer
Bellmead, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- McLennan County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 McLennan County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bellmead's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellmead's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellmead
Each reading below is measured for Bellmead itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBellmead runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from McLennan County, the closest normal to Bellmead) — 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
MeasuredBellmead 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 Bellmead is in
Bellmead sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bellmead's own centroid rather than borrowed from McLennan County.
What Grows in Bellmead
Every plant below cleared Bellmead's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellmead?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Bellmead
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellmead. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPEEDY PAC EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CEFCO 0011Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BIG J TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2600 ft
- WACO SERVICE CENTER HHWCSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CARMENS CORNER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CORNER STORE 1323Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KMART 7220Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BELLMEAD FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- M&M TRUCK LEASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WALMART STORE 1254Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CORNER STORE 1379Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellmead'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 Bellmead.
Total Sites
771
within ~10 miles of Bellmead
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
48 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellmead
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellmead
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellmead, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bellmead — Underground Storage Tanks (601 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Bellmead
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 Bellmead average
Your land is one point inside Bellmead
Everything above resolves to Bellmead as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from McLennan 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 Bellmead Average
Bellmead Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bellmead
- ●One soil character for all of Bellmead
- ●Frost dates read at Bellmead's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellmead's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellmead
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellmead, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellmead averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellmead — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellmead average
How we know this about Bellmead
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 McLennan 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 Bellmead
When does frost risk typically end in Bellmead?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellmead typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Bellmead?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellmead typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellmead?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellmead sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 17, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellmead?
The federal record around Bellmead is a meaningful one — 771 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (601), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bellmead?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bellmead's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellmead'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 Bellmead’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bellmead's own scale — the 4,418 acres it covers and 771 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellmead's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 771 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellmead, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellmead's boundary and the 4,418 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bellmead's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bellmead has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom McLennan County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellmead's 4,418 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McLennan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McLennan 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 McLennan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellmead's 4,418 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellmead you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,418 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bellmead-wide figureread your own land →
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