Dawson County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Dawson County lies within the Texas High Plains / Panhandle and the High Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Dawson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Dawson 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 Dawson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dawson County — the short answer
Dawson County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 576K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 576K 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 Dawson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dawson County's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Dawson County
Across a year, Dawson County accumulates about 4,865 growing degree days above 50°F, about 959 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 38 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 1,678 hours below 45°F, 583 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 Dawson County
Across Dawson County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Amarillo, Patricia, and Acuff are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.0, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Dawson County
The USDA soil survey maps 95% of Dawson County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained, 2% excessively drained.
Amarillo is the most extensive named soil at 53% of mapped acres, then Patricia (11%) and Acuff (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 Dawson County
Each reading below is measured for Dawson 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 Dawson County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Dawson County runs about pH 7.5–8.0, 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
MeasuredDawson County runs about 241 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
MeasuredDawson 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 Dawson County is in
Dawson County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — High Plains (92%) and Southwestern Tablelands (8%). 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 Dawson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Dawson County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 241-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 Dawson 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 Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Dawson County
USGS estimates 521,639 lb of Glyphosate on Dawson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (105,559 lb) and 2,4-d (55,629 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 Dawson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Dawson County — 122 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Dawson 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 Dawson County
Closest first, across Dawson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOUTH STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BRAY IMPLEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- UGI UNION SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LAMESA ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- HOC M-1Underground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LAMESA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- PAYMASTER GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- KEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- SNAKE COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- UNITED GINUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CARD SYSTEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- LAMESA 66 TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dawson 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 Dawson County.
Total Sites
122
across Dawson County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Dawson County
Severity Distribution
across Dawson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dawson County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 107 sites across Dawson County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Dawson 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 Dawson County average
Your land is one point inside Dawson County
Everything above resolves to Dawson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 576K 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 Dawson County Average
Dawson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dawson County
- ●One soil character for all of Dawson County
- ●Frost dates read at Dawson County's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dawson County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Dawson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dawson County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dawson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dawson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dawson County average
How we know this about Dawson 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 Dawson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Dawson County
When does frost risk typically end in Dawson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson County typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
How long is the growing season in Dawson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dawson County sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dawson County?
The federal record around Dawson County shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), 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 Dawson County's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dawson 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 Dawson County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Dawson County's own scale — its own ~241-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 122 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dawson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dawson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Dawson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 122 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
- Dawson County's boundary and the 576,197 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Dawson County spans, High Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Dawson 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 Dawson County — the ~241 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 Dawson County's 576,197 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 122 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 Dawson Countyread your own land →