Claude, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Claude, 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 Claude 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 Claude — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Claude — the short answer
Claude, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 214 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~214
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Claude's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Claude's 214-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Claude
Each reading below is measured for Claude itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredClaude runs about 214 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
MeasuredClaude 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 Claude is in
Claude sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Claude's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Armstrong County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Claude
Every plant below cleared Claude's own zone 7a and its 214-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Claude?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Claude
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Claude. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLAUDE SCHOOL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NILE J PATTERSON JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CLAUDE WAREHOUSE 110102Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2030Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- DOBE FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- WAYSIDE RADIO RELAY TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- PALO DUROUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- BALLARD TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- THOMPSON GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- TXDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- BUTLERS SHAMROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- BARRERA CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Claude'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 Claude.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Claude
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Claude
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 Claude average
Your land is one point inside Claude
Everything above resolves to Claude as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Claude Average
Claude Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Claude
- ●One soil character for all of Claude
- ●Frost dates read at Claude's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Claude's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Claude
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Claude, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Claude averages can't show:
We read public map data around Claude — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Claude average
How we know this about Claude
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 Claude’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 Claude
When does frost risk typically end in Claude?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Claude typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Claude?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Claude typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 214 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Claude?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Claude sees about 214 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 21, about 179 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Claude?
The federal record around Claude is light — 18 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (18), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Claude?
From about Oct 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 Nov 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Claude's scale — its 7a band and its 214-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Claude'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 Claude’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Claude's own scale — its own ~214-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,098 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Claude's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Claude's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 4 and the ~214-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Claude, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Claude's boundary and the 1,098 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~214-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Claude sits in the High 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 Claude's 1,098 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Claude's 1,098 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Claude you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,098 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Claude-wide figureread your own land →