Clarendon, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Clarendon, 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 Clarendon 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 Clarendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clarendon — the short answer
Clarendon, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 7a is Clarendon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarendon's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clarendon
Each reading below is measured for Clarendon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClarendon runs about 219 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
MeasuredClarendon sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Clarendon is in
Clarendon sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Clarendon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Donley County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Clarendon
Every plant below cleared Clarendon's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clarendon?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — 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 Clarendon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clarendon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALDERSON CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2028Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CORNELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GARRISON FOOD MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CITY OF CLARENDON BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10204Brownfields · 1100 ft
- NATIONAL RECLAMATION WASTE MANAGEMENT COBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CLOSED SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLARENDON OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HARLANS FLOWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WALLACE MONUMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ALLSUPS 48Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarendon'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 Clarendon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clarendon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clarendon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarendon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of Clarendon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Clarendon
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 Clarendon average
Your land is one point inside Clarendon
Everything above resolves to Clarendon 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 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 Clarendon Average
Clarendon Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Clarendon
- ●One soil character for all of Clarendon
- ●Frost dates read at Clarendon's scale: Mar 31 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarendon's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clarendon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarendon, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarendon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarendon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarendon average
How we know this about Clarendon
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 Clarendon’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 Clarendon
When does frost risk typically end in Clarendon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarendon typically lands around Mar 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Clarendon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clarendon typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clarendon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarendon sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 31 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 21 to Oct 22, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarendon?
The federal record around Clarendon is light — 38 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Clarendon?
From about Oct 6 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 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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Clarendon's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarendon'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 Clarendon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Clarendon's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,916 acres it covers and 38 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarendon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarendon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 31 and Nov 5 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 38 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clarendon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clarendon's boundary and the 1,916 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clarendon 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 Clarendon's 1,916 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Donley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Donley 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 Donley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clarendon's 1,916 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clarendon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,916 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Clarendon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasClarendon sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides