Bronte, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bronte, 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 Bronte 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 Bronte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bronte — the short answer
Bronte, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 919 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 919 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 Bronte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bronte's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bronte
Each reading below is measured for Bronte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBronte runs about 256 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
MeasuredBronte 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 Bronte is in
Bronte sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bronte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coke County.
What Grows in Bronte
Every plant below cleared Bronte's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bronte?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Bronte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bronte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUTLER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BUTLER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- NONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- STRIPES 114Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- BRONTE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF BRONTEPFAS · 0.7 mi
Measured from Bronte'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 Bronte.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bronte
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Bronte
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 Bronte average
Your land is one point inside Bronte
Everything above resolves to Bronte as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 919 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 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 Bronte Average
Bronte Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bronte
- ●One soil character for all of Bronte
- ●Frost dates read at Bronte's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bronte's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bronte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bronte, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bronte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bronte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bronte average
How we know this about Bronte
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 Bronte’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 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 Bronte
When does frost risk typically end in Bronte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bronte typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Bronte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bronte typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bronte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bronte sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 7, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bronte?
The federal record around Bronte shows 7 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (6), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Bronte?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bronte's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bronte'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 Bronte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bronte's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 919 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bronte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bronte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 21 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bronte, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bronte's boundary and the 919 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bronte's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bronte's 919 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coke 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 Coke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bronte's 919 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bronte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 919 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Bronte-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBronte sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides