Butterfield, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Butterfield, 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 Butterfield 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 Butterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Butterfield — the short answer
Butterfield, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8b is Butterfield's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Butterfield's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Butterfield
Each reading below is measured for Butterfield itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredButterfield runs about 274 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredButterfield 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 Butterfield is in
Butterfield sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Butterfield's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Butterfield
Every plant below cleared Butterfield's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Butterfield?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Butterfield
Survey cells within 31 miles of Butterfield checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 653 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Butterfield
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Butterfield. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THERMACYCLEBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- GRAYMAR ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- SHAMROCK CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- EAST MONTANA WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 3.7 mi
- EL PASO WATER UTILITIES PUBLIC SERVICE BPFAS · 3.7 mi
- HUECO TANKS STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- EL PASO COUNTY ROAD & BRIDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- LA MODERNAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- MONTANA VISTA ELEMENTARY SCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- QUICK SILVER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- AVAIL SURPLUS METALSBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- JARVIS LIQUORUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Butterfield'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 Butterfield.
Total Sites
25
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Butterfield
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Butterfield
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 Butterfield average
Your land is one point inside Butterfield
Everything above resolves to Butterfield as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Butterfield Average
Butterfield Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Butterfield
- ●One soil character for all of Butterfield
- ●Frost dates read at Butterfield's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Butterfield's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Butterfield
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Butterfield, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Butterfield averages can't show:
We read public map data around Butterfield — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Butterfield average
How we know this about Butterfield
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 Butterfield’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 Butterfield
When does frost risk typically end in Butterfield?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Butterfield typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Butterfield?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Butterfield typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Butterfield?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Butterfield sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 11, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Butterfield?
The federal record around Butterfield shows 25 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Brownfields record about 3.1 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 Butterfield?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Butterfield's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Butterfield'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 Butterfield’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Butterfield's own scale — its own ~274-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,063 acres it covers and 25 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Butterfield's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Butterfield's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 24 and Nov 25 and the ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 25 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Butterfield, the closest Brownfields record about 3.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Butterfield's boundary and the 2,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Butterfield's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Butterfield checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Butterfield's 2,063 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Butterfield's 2,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Butterfield you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,063 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 3.1 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 Butterfield-wide figureread your own land →