Benjamin, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Benjamin, 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 Benjamin 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 Benjamin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Benjamin — the short answer
Benjamin, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 673 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 673 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 Benjamin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benjamin's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benjamin
Each reading below is measured for Benjamin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenjamin runs about 254 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
MeasuredBenjamin 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 Benjamin is in
Benjamin sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Benjamin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Knox County.
What Grows in Benjamin
Every plant below cleared Benjamin's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benjamin?
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 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 20 — 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 Benjamin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benjamin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TWO RIVERS FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- D & H AERIALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MASTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- FARMERS GRAIN COOPERATIVE OF MUNDAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- AIR AGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MOORHOUSE GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JAMES N SMITHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- JAMES PEEK EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- COOK GAS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ALLSUPS 193Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- KC OIL 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- VACANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benjamin'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 Benjamin.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benjamin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benjamin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Benjamin — Mining (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (21 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Benjamin
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 Benjamin average
Your land is one point inside Benjamin
Everything above resolves to Benjamin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 673 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 Benjamin Average
Benjamin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Benjamin
- ●One soil character for all of Benjamin
- ●Frost dates read at Benjamin's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benjamin's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benjamin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benjamin, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benjamin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benjamin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benjamin average
How we know this about Benjamin
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 Benjamin’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 Benjamin
When does frost risk typically end in Benjamin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benjamin 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 Benjamin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benjamin typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benjamin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benjamin sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 6, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benjamin?
The federal record around Benjamin is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 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 Benjamin?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benjamin's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benjamin'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 Benjamin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benjamin's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 673 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benjamin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benjamin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 20 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benjamin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benjamin's boundary and the 673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Benjamin's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benjamin's 673 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Knox County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Knox 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 Knox County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benjamin's 673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benjamin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 673 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.3 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 Benjamin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBenjamin sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.