Buffalo Gap, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Buffalo Gap, 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 Buffalo Gap 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 Buffalo Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Buffalo Gap — the short answer
Buffalo Gap, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Taylor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Taylor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- Taylor County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Taylor County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Buffalo Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buffalo Gap's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buffalo Gap
Each reading below is measured for Buffalo Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBuffalo Gap runs about 254 days between hard freezes (read from Taylor County, the closest normal to Buffalo Gap) — 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
MeasuredBuffalo Gap 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 Buffalo Gap is in
Buffalo Gap sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Buffalo Gap's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Taylor County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Buffalo Gap
Every plant below cleared Buffalo Gap's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buffalo Gap?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (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. 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 Buffalo Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buffalo Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE TRAILS ENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUFFALO GAP STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Buffalo Gap-1Mining · 2.5 mi
- DK PRECISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DUFF FAMILY FARMLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BILL VAN CLEAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CLAXTON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- BOX & BOXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- PAPA BEARS RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- DOWELL SCHLUMBERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- PRODUCTION PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 54Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buffalo Gap'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 Buffalo Gap.
Total Sites
177
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Gap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buffalo Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buffalo Gap, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Buffalo Gap — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (140 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Buffalo Gap
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 Buffalo Gap average
Your land is one point inside Buffalo Gap
Everything above resolves to Buffalo Gap as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Taylor 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 Buffalo Gap Average
Buffalo Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Buffalo Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Buffalo Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Buffalo Gap's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buffalo Gap's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buffalo Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buffalo Gap, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buffalo Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buffalo Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buffalo Gap average
How we know this about Buffalo Gap
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 Taylor 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 Buffalo Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Buffalo Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo Gap typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Buffalo Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buffalo Gap 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 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buffalo Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buffalo Gap sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 7, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buffalo Gap?
The federal record around Buffalo Gap is a meaningful one — 177 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (140), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Buffalo Gap?
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 Buffalo Gap's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buffalo Gap'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 Buffalo Gap’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Buffalo Gap's own scale — the 1,557 acres it covers and 177 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buffalo Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 177 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buffalo Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buffalo Gap's boundary and the 1,557 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Buffalo Gap sits in the Edwards Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Buffalo Gap has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Taylor County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buffalo Gap's 1,557 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taylor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taylor 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 Taylor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buffalo Gap's 1,557 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buffalo Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,557 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Buffalo Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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