Bell County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Bell County lies within the Blackland Prairie — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bell County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bell County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bell County — the short answer
Bell County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 674K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 674K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 8b is Bell County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bell County's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Bell County
Across a year, Bell County accumulates about 6,289 growing degree days above 50°F, about 465 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 175 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 781 hours below 45°F, 314 fewer than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bell County
Across Bell County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Houston Black, Heiden, and Eckrant are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.8–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
34%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bell County
The USDA soil survey maps 71% of Bell County as well drained — but another 27% drains differently: 27% moderately well drained.
Houston Black is the most extensive named soil at 11% of mapped acres, then Heiden (9%) and Eckrant (6%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bell County
Each reading below is measured for Bell County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bell County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bell County runs about pH 7.8–8.2, on the alkaline side.
Many vegetables cope, but acid-lovers like blueberries struggle, and iron and manganese lock up above about pH 7.5 — leaves yellow between the veins even in rich soil.
Elemental sulfur and generous organic matter lower pH slowly for the beds that need it; test first so you add only what the soil actually calls for.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBell County runs about 287 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBell County 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 Bell County is in
Bell County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Texas Blackland Prairies (52%) and Cross Timbers (48%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Bell County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bell County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 287-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bell County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Bell County
- monarch butterfly17 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bell County
USGS estimates 185,621 lb of Glyphosate on Bell County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (40,251 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (29,504 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bell County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bell County — 827 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Bell County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bell County
Closest first, across Bell County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- USACE BELTON PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LOVES BUDGET FUEL STOP 232Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SMITHS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- WESTERN HILLS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PAYLESS GAS 650 ZIPPY 210Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CENTRAL TEXAS WATER SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CLOSED LOCATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- MARTYS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- REGIONAL TRAINING SITE MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CHEMCO MANUFACTURINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CORNER TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- BARTEK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bell County'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 Bell County.
Sources Checked
across Bell County
Severity Distribution
across Bell County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bell County, two things run higher than the national average across Bell County — PFAS (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (593 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bell County
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 Bell County average
Your land is one point inside Bell County
Everything above resolves to Bell County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 674K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bell County Average
Bell County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bell County
- ●One soil character for all of Bell County
- ●Frost dates read at Bell County's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bell County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bell County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bell County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bell County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bell County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bell County average
How we know this about Bell County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bell County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bell County
When does frost risk typically end in Bell County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bell County typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in Bell County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bell County sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 18, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bell County?
The federal record around Bell County runs heavier than most — 827 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (593), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Bell County's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bell County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bell County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bell County's own scale — its own ~287-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 827 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bell County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bell County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~287-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bell CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 827 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bell County's boundary and the 674,454 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 2 ecoregions Bell County spans, Texas Blackland Prairies the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bell County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bell County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bell County — the ~287 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bell County's 674,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 827 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bell Countyread your own land →