Copperas Cove, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, 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 Copperas Cove, 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 Copperas Cove 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 Copperas Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Copperas Cove — the short answer
Copperas Cove, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Coryell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 12K 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 Coryell County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Copperas Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Copperas Cove's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Copperas Cove
Each reading below is measured for Copperas Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCopperas Cove runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Coryell County, the closest normal to Copperas Cove) — 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
MeasuredCopperas Cove 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 Copperas Cove is in
Copperas Cove sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Copperas Cove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coryell County.
What Grows in Copperas Cove
Every plant below cleared Copperas Cove's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Copperas Cove?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Copperas Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Copperas Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GIN'S CLEANERSBrownfields · 1100 ft
- COVE LUCKY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CCISD TRANSPORTATION COMPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3860Brownfields · 2500 ft
- MICKEYS 16Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- COVE CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STAR MART 6Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALON 108Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CORNER STORE 1312Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BIG CHIEF 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COVE FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Copperas Cove'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 Copperas Cove.
Total Sites
116
within ~10 miles of Copperas Cove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Copperas Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Copperas Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Copperas Cove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Copperas Cove — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (81 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Copperas Cove
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 Copperas Cove average
Your land is one point inside Copperas Cove
Everything above resolves to Copperas Cove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Coryell 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 Copperas Cove Average
Copperas Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Copperas Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Copperas Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Copperas Cove's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Copperas Cove's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Copperas Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Copperas Cove, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Copperas Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Copperas Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Copperas Cove average
How we know this about Copperas Cove
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 Coryell 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 Copperas Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Copperas Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Copperas Cove typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Copperas Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Copperas Cove typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Copperas Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Copperas Cove sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 17, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Copperas Cove?
The federal record around Copperas Cove is a meaningful one — 116 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Copperas Cove?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Copperas Cove's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Copperas Cove'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 Copperas Cove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Copperas Cove's own scale — the 11,538 acres it covers and 116 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Copperas Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 116 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Copperas Cove, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Copperas Cove's boundary and the 11,538 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Copperas Cove's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Copperas Cove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Coryell County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Copperas Cove's 11,538 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coryell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coryell 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 Coryell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Copperas Cove's 11,538 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Copperas Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,538 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Copperas Cove-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasCopperas Cove sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.