Bryson, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bryson, 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 Bryson 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 Bryson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bryson — the short answer
Bryson, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 842 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 842 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 Bryson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bryson's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bryson
Each reading below is measured for Bryson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBryson runs about 247 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
MeasuredBryson 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 Bryson is in
Bryson sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bryson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jack County.
What Grows in Bryson
Every plant below cleared Bryson's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bryson?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Bryson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bryson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITH CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AERO-MARINE ENGINEERING INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
Measured from Bryson'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 Bryson.
Total Sites
2
within ~10 miles of Bryson
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bryson
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Bryson
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 Bryson average
Your land is one point inside Bryson
Everything above resolves to Bryson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 842 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 Bryson Average
Bryson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bryson
- ●One soil character for all of Bryson
- ●Frost dates read at Bryson's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bryson's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bryson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bryson, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bryson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bryson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bryson average
How we know this about Bryson
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 Bryson’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 Bryson
When does frost risk typically end in Bryson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bryson typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Bryson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bryson typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bryson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bryson sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 2, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bryson?
The federal record around Bryson is light — 2 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Toxics Release Inventory entries (1), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bryson?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bryson's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bryson'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 Bryson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bryson's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 842 acres it covers and 2 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bryson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bryson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 16 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bryson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bryson's boundary and the 842 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bryson's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bryson's 842 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jack County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jack 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 Jack County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bryson's 842 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bryson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 842 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Bryson-wide figureread your own land →
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