El Paso 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
El Paso County lies within the Hatch / Mesilla Valley and the Trans-Pecos / Big Bend — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
El Paso County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across El Paso 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 El Paso County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
El Paso County — the short answer
El Paso County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 649K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 649K 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 El Paso County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against El Paso County's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in El Paso County
Across a year, El Paso County accumulates about 5,649 growing degree days above 50°F, about 175 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 96 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 1,400 hours below 45°F, 305 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 El Paso County
Across El Paso County, the ground is predominantly Aridisols, where Hueco, Wink, and Bluepoint are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Aridisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across El Paso County
The USDA soil survey maps 69% of El Paso County as well drained — but another 23% drains differently: 12% somewhat excessively drained, 8% excessively drained.
Hueco is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Wink (15%) and Bluepoint (14%).
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 El Paso County
Each reading below is measured for El Paso 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 El Paso 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 El Paso County runs about pH 7.9–8.2, 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
MeasuredEl Paso County runs about 282 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
MeasuredEl Paso 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 El Paso County is in
El Paso County sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in El Paso County
We scored all 1,086 plants against El Paso County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 282-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 El Paso County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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.
Documented around El Paso County
Survey cells within 31 miles of El Paso County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 644 miles off. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly21 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in El Paso County
USGS estimates 10,607 lb of Glyphosate on El Paso County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (5,881 lb) and Acetochlor (2,627 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 El Paso County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across El Paso County — 2,004 documented sites across 8 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
El Paso 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 El Paso County
Closest first, across El Paso County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXPRESS INTERNACIONAL SOTELO SA DE CVBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FAST MART 8174Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8603Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE 2703288Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SERVICIO DE TRANSPORTE MONARCA SA DE CVBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CORNER STORE 1531Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOWDYS 316Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 57655Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CEMEX EL PASO SECTION 10Toxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- EL PASO SANDHILLS 855Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 8523Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- GRIJALVA LIMAS JESUS ERNESTOBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from El Paso 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 El Paso County.
Total Sites
2,004
across El Paso County
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across El Paso County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around El Paso County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,251 sites across El Paso 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 El Paso 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 El Paso County average
Your land is one point inside El Paso County
Everything above resolves to El Paso County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 649K 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 El Paso County Average
El Paso County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across El Paso County
- ●One soil character for all of El Paso County
- ●Frost dates read at El Paso County's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not El Paso County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in El Paso County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in El Paso County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that El Paso County averages can't show:
We read public map data around El Paso County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the El Paso County average
How we know this about El Paso 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 El Paso County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about El Paso County
When does frost risk typically end in El Paso County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in El Paso County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 12.
How long is the growing season in El Paso County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, El Paso County sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 14, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in El Paso County?
The federal record around El Paso County runs heavier than most — 2,004 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,251), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 El Paso County's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of El Paso 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 El Paso County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at El Paso County's own scale — its own ~282-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 2,004 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- El Paso County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- El Paso County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in El Paso CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 2,004 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- El Paso County's boundary and the 648,656 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- El Paso County sitting wholly inside the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in El Paso County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto El Paso 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 El Paso County — the ~282 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 El Paso County's 648,656 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 2,004 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 El Paso Countyread your own land →