Breckenridge, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Breckenridge, 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 Breckenridge 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 Breckenridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Breckenridge — the short answer
Breckenridge, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- 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
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Breckenridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Breckenridge's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Breckenridge
Each reading below is measured for Breckenridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBreckenridge runs about 252 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
MeasuredBreckenridge 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 Breckenridge is in
Breckenridge sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Breckenridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stephens County.
What Grows in Breckenridge
Every plant below cleared Breckenridge's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Breckenridge?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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. 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 Breckenridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Breckenridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTSIDE MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- E-Z MART 318Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- QUICK SIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SMITHS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MICKEYS BARBER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- SAV-M 152Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4678Brownfields · 1300 ft
- BRECKENRIDGE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WIMBERLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ALLSUPS 302Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Breckenridge'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 Breckenridge.
Total Sites
77
within ~10 miles of Breckenridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Breckenridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Breckenridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Breckenridge, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 65 sites within ~10 miles of Breckenridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Breckenridge
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 Breckenridge average
Your land is one point inside Breckenridge
Everything above resolves to Breckenridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Breckenridge Average
Breckenridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Breckenridge
- ●One soil character for all of Breckenridge
- ●Frost dates read at Breckenridge's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Breckenridge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Breckenridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Breckenridge, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Breckenridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Breckenridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Breckenridge average
How we know this about Breckenridge
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 Breckenridge’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 Breckenridge
When does frost risk typically end in Breckenridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Breckenridge typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Breckenridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Breckenridge 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 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Breckenridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Breckenridge sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 6, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Breckenridge?
The federal record around Breckenridge shows 77 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Breckenridge?
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 Breckenridge's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Breckenridge'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 Breckenridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Breckenridge's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,686 acres it covers and 77 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Breckenridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Breckenridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 20 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 77 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Breckenridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Breckenridge's boundary and the 2,686 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Breckenridge's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Breckenridge's 2,686 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stephens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stephens 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 Stephens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Breckenridge's 2,686 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Breckenridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,686 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Breckenridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBreckenridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.