Cedar Hill, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Cedar Hill, 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 Cedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cedar Hill — the short answer
Cedar Hill, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 294 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~294
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Dallas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cedar Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Hill's 294-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Hill
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCedar Hill runs about 294 days between hard freezes (read from Dallas County, the closest normal to Cedar Hill) — 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
MeasuredCedar Hill 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 Cedar Hill is in
Cedar Hill sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cedar Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Cedar Hill
Every plant below cleared Cedar Hill's own zone 8b and its 294-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Hill?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E&E ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- E & E ENTERPRISES INCToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- GABOR TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CEDAR HILL PLANTBrownfields · 1800 ft
- CEDAR HILL PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1800 ft
- PHILLIPS LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- 291CO CEDAR HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DAIRY QUEEN OF CEDAR HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CLOSED EXCAVATION FIRM B & JUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TEXACO CEDARHILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Hill'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 Cedar Hill.
Total Sites
800
within ~10 miles of Cedar Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cedar Hill — Toxics Release Inventory (81 sites) and PFAS (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Hill
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 Cedar Hill average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Hill
Everything above resolves to Cedar Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 23K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dallas County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Cedar Hill Average
Cedar Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cedar Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Hill's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Hill's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Hill, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Hill average
How we know this about Cedar Hill
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 Dallas 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 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 Cedar Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Hill typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 7.
When is the first frost in Cedar Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Hill typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 294 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Hill sees about 294 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 21, about 259 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Hill?
The federal record around Cedar Hill is a meaningful one — 800 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (504), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Cedar Hill?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Hill's scale — its 8b band and its 294-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Hill'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 Cedar Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Hill's own scale — the 22,904 acres it covers and 800 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 800 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Hill's boundary and the 22,904 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~294-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cedar Hill's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cedar Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dallas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Hill's 22,904 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Hill's 22,904 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,904 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 Cedar Hill-wide figureread your own land →
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