Blackwell, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Blackwell, 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 Blackwell 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 Blackwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blackwell — the short answer
Blackwell, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 378 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 378 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 Blackwell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blackwell's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blackwell
Each reading below is measured for Blackwell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBlackwell runs about 250 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
MeasuredBlackwell 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 Blackwell is in
Blackwell sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Blackwell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nolan County.
What Grows in Blackwell
Every plant below cleared Blackwell's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blackwell?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Blackwell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blackwell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLACKWELL AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- OAK CREEK POWER STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- WEST TEXAS UTILITIES OAK CREEK POWER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- CHADBOURNE RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- White Hat Ranch-1Mining · 8.1 mi
Measured from Blackwell'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 Blackwell.
Total Sites
5
within ~10 miles of Blackwell
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blackwell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blackwell
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Blackwell
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 Blackwell average
Your land is one point inside Blackwell
Everything above resolves to Blackwell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 378 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 Blackwell Average
Blackwell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Blackwell
- ●One soil character for all of Blackwell
- ●Frost dates read at Blackwell's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blackwell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blackwell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blackwell, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blackwell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blackwell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blackwell average
How we know this about Blackwell
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 Blackwell’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 Blackwell
When does frost risk typically end in Blackwell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwell typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Blackwell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blackwell typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Blackwell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blackwell sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 3, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blackwell?
The federal record around Blackwell is light — 5 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3), 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 Blackwell?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Blackwell's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blackwell'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 Blackwell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Blackwell's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 378 acres it covers and 5 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blackwell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blackwell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 17 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 5 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blackwell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blackwell's boundary and the 378 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blackwell's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blackwell's 378 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nolan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nolan 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 Nolan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blackwell's 378 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blackwell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 378 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 Blackwell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides