Blanco County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Blanco County lies within the Texas Hill Country — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Blanco County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Blanco 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 Blanco County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blanco County — the short answer
Blanco County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 454K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 454K 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 Blanco County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blanco County's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Blanco County
Across a year, Blanco County accumulates about 6,090 growing degree days above 50°F, about 266 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 160 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 771 hours below 45°F, 324 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 Blanco County
Across Blanco County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Brackett, Real, and Hensley are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.3–8.0, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Blanco County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Blanco County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% excessively drained.
Brackett is the most extensive named soil at 33% of mapped acres, then Real (9%) and Hensley (8%).
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 Blanco County
Each reading below is measured for Blanco 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 Blanco 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 Blanco County runs about pH 7.3–8.0, 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
MeasuredBlanco County runs about 265 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
MeasuredBlanco 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 Blanco County is in
Blanco County sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Blanco County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Blanco County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 265-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 Blanco County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Blanco County
- monarch butterfly99 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Blanco County
USGS estimates 3,833 lb of Glyphosate on Blanco County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (2,201 lb) and 2,4-d (1,875 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 Blanco County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Blanco County — 66 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 mining site (prospects, none worked). Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Blanco County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Blanco County
Closest first, across Blanco County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OAK SPRINGS ICE & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- COX PAVINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- PEDERNALES ELECTRIC COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- FLAT CREEK GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- SUPER S 100149Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- OLD BLANCO AUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- JOHNSON CITY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- JOHNSON CITY BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- HILLSIDE AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- FAST STOP STORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- DEANS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- ROY FINCH EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blanco 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 Blanco County.
Total Sites
66
across Blanco County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
across Blanco County
Severity Distribution
across Blanco County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blanco County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites across Blanco County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Blanco 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 Blanco County average
Your land is one point inside Blanco County
Everything above resolves to Blanco County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 454K 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 Blanco County Average
Blanco County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Blanco County
- ●One soil character for all of Blanco County
- ●Frost dates read at Blanco County's scale: Mar 1 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blanco County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Blanco County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blanco County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blanco County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blanco County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blanco County average
How we know this about Blanco 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 Blanco County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Blanco County
When does frost risk typically end in Blanco County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blanco County typically lands around Mar 1, 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 22.
How long is the growing season in Blanco County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blanco County sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 1 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 22 to Nov 7, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Blanco County?
The federal record around Blanco County shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Blanco County's scale — its 8b band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blanco 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 Blanco County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Blanco County's own scale — its own ~265-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 66 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blanco County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Blanco County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Blanco CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 66 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Blanco County's boundary and the 453,921 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Blanco County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Blanco County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Blanco 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 Blanco County — the ~265 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 Blanco County's 453,921 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 66 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 Blanco Countyread your own land →