Borger, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Borger, 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 Borger 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 Borger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Borger — the short answer
Borger, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 7a is Borger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Borger's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Borger
Each reading below is measured for Borger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBorger runs about 228 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
MeasuredBorger sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Borger is in
Borger sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Borger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hutchinson County.
What Grows in Borger
Every plant below cleared Borger's own zone 7a and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Borger?
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 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Borger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Borger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HELO ENERGYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- KERR MCGEE 6061Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WRIGHT RAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GANDY RONNYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- O JS DISCOUNTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BORGER COCA-COLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ROBINSON CLAUDE PUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PAK A SAK 20Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 1516Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALLSUPS 41Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2010Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Borger'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 Borger.
Total Sites
154
within ~10 miles of Borger
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Borger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Borger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Borger, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Borger — Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (99 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Borger
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 Borger average
Your land is one point inside Borger
Everything above resolves to Borger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Borger Average
Borger Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Borger
- ●One soil character for all of Borger
- ●Frost dates read at Borger's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Borger's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Borger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Borger, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Borger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Borger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Borger average
How we know this about Borger
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 Borger’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 Borger
When does frost risk typically end in Borger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Borger typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Borger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Borger typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Borger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Borger sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 27, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Borger?
The federal record around Borger is a meaningful one — 154 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (99), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Borger?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Borger's scale — its 7a band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Borger'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 Borger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Borger's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,780 acres it covers and 154 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Borger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Borger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 10 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 154 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Borger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Borger's boundary and the 5,780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Borger's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Borger's 5,780 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hutchinson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hutchinson 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 Hutchinson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Borger's 5,780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Borger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,780 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 Borger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBorger sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides