Boyd, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Boyd, 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 Boyd 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 Boyd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boyd — the short answer
Boyd, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Wise County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Wise County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- Wise County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Wise County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Boyd's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boyd's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boyd
Each reading below is measured for Boyd itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBoyd runs about 266 days between hard freezes (read from Wise County, the closest normal to Boyd) — 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
MeasuredBoyd 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 Boyd is in
Boyd sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Boyd's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wise County.
What Grows in Boyd
Every plant below cleared Boyd's own zone 8b and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boyd?
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 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Boyd
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boyd. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BOYD KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HOMETOWN CLEANERSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- ROCK ISLAND EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- BOYD PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- US FILTER RECOVERY SERVICES INCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- JB AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5244Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- ALLSUPS 292Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WISE COUNTY PRECINCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TXI - RHOME READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- ZR-19-60-506Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- KOUNTRY KORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boyd'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 Boyd.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Boyd
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boyd
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boyd
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boyd, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Boyd. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Boyd
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 Boyd average
Your land is one point inside Boyd
Everything above resolves to Boyd as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wise 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 Boyd Average
Boyd Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Boyd
- ●One soil character for all of Boyd
- ●Frost dates read at Boyd's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boyd's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boyd
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boyd, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boyd averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boyd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boyd average
How we know this about Boyd
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 Wise 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 Boyd
When does frost risk typically end in Boyd?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boyd typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Boyd?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boyd typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boyd?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boyd sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 10, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boyd?
The federal record around Boyd is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Boyd?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boyd's scale — its 8b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boyd'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 Boyd’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Boyd's own scale — the 2,622 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boyd's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boyd, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boyd's boundary and the 2,622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boyd's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Boyd has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wise County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boyd's 2,622 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wise County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wise 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 Wise County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boyd's 2,622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boyd you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,622 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Boyd-wide figureread your own land →
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