Cooke County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Cooke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Cooke 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 Cooke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cooke County — the short answer
Cooke County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 560K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 560K 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 8a is Cooke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cooke County's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Cooke County
Across a year, Cooke County accumulates about 5,449 growing degree days above 50°F, about 375 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 59 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 1,420 hours below 45°F, 325 more 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 Cooke County
Across Cooke County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sanger, Slidell, and Maloterre are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Cooke County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Cooke County as well drained — but another 37% drains differently: 29% moderately well drained, 8% somewhat excessively drained.
Sanger is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Slidell (6%) and Maloterre (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 Cooke County
Each reading below is measured for Cooke 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 Cooke 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 Cooke County runs about pH 6.5–7.9, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredCooke County runs about 264 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
MeasuredCooke County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Cooke County is in
Cooke County sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Cooke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Cooke County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 264-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 Cooke County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Cooke County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Cooke County
USGS estimates 27,214 lb of 2,4-d on Cooke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (16,816 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (4,664 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 Cooke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Cooke County — 202 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Cooke County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Cooke County
Closest first, across Cooke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GLASTECToxics Release Inventory · 700 ft
- WEBER AIRCRAFTToxics Release Inventory · 2000 ft
- WEBER AIRCRAFTBrownfields · 2000 ft
- NICHOLS MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- HWY 82 MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GTE VALERON VALENITE TX DIVUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- OAK RIDGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- MOUNTAIN SPRINGS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- GAINESVILLE R AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SUZY QSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FUHRMANN BROS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TXDOT MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cooke 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 Cooke County.
Total Sites
202
across Cooke County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Cooke County
Severity Distribution
across Cooke County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cooke County, two things run higher than the national average across Cooke County — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cooke 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 Cooke County average
Your land is one point inside Cooke County
Everything above resolves to Cooke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 560K 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 Cooke County Average
Cooke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cooke County
- ●One soil character for all of Cooke County
- ●Frost dates read at Cooke County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cooke County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Cooke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cooke County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cooke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cooke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cooke County average
How we know this about Cooke 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 Cooke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Cooke County
When does frost risk typically end in Cooke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cooke County typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
How long is the growing season in Cooke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cooke County sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cooke County?
The federal record around Cooke County is a meaningful one — 202 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Cooke County's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cooke 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 Cooke County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Cooke County's own scale — its own ~264-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 202 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cooke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cooke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Cooke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 202 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Cooke County's boundary and the 559,888 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cooke County sitting wholly inside the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Cooke County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Cooke 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 Cooke County — the ~264 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 Cooke County's 559,888 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 202 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 Cooke Countyread your own land →