Carlsbad, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Carlsbad, 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 Carlsbad 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 Carlsbad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Carlsbad — the short answer
Carlsbad, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 994 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 994 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 Carlsbad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carlsbad's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carlsbad
Each reading below is measured for Carlsbad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCarlsbad runs about 243 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
MeasuredCarlsbad 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 Carlsbad is in
Carlsbad sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Carlsbad's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tom Green County is mostly Edwards Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Carlsbad
Every plant below cleared Carlsbad's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carlsbad?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Carlsbad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carlsbad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JIMMYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- SAN ANGELO STATE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LONG INDUSTRIES CARLSBAD FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- CARLSBAD MATERIAL YARD PREC 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GRAPE CREEK ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- YB-43-19-402Nitrate · 6.0 mi
- WATER VALLEY ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Turnerdale-1Mining · 6.4 mi
- ALLSUPS 371Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- YB-43-28-602Nitrate · 6.6 mi
- ALLSUPS 352Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 105Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carlsbad'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 Carlsbad.
Total Sites
18
within ~10 miles of Carlsbad
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carlsbad
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carlsbad
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Carlsbad
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 Carlsbad average
Your land is one point inside Carlsbad
Everything above resolves to Carlsbad as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 994 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 Carlsbad Average
Carlsbad Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Carlsbad
- ●One soil character for all of Carlsbad
- ●Frost dates read at Carlsbad's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carlsbad's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carlsbad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carlsbad, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carlsbad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carlsbad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carlsbad average
How we know this about Carlsbad
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 Carlsbad’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 Carlsbad
When does frost risk typically end in Carlsbad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carlsbad typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Carlsbad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carlsbad typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carlsbad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carlsbad sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 31, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carlsbad?
The federal record around Carlsbad shows 18 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Carlsbad?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carlsbad's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carlsbad'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 Carlsbad’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Carlsbad's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 994 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carlsbad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Carlsbad's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 14 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carlsbad, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carlsbad's boundary and the 994 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Carlsbad sits in the Central Great Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carlsbad's 994 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tom Green County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tom Green 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 Tom Green County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carlsbad's 994 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carlsbad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 994 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Carlsbad-wide figureread your own land →
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