Fannin County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Fannin 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
Fannin County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Fannin 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 Fannin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fannin County — the short answer
Fannin County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 562K 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
- 562K 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 Fannin County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fannin County's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Fannin County
Across a year, Fannin County accumulates about 5,362 growing degree days above 50°F, about 462 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 51 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 1,403 hours below 45°F, 308 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 Fannin County
Across Fannin County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Fairlie, Wilson, and Whakana are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.9, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
41%
Hydric soils
3%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Fannin County
The USDA soil survey maps 52% of Fannin County as moderately well drained — but another 47% drains differently: 37% well drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Fairlie is the most extensive named soil at 10% of mapped acres, then Wilson (6%) and Whakana (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 Fannin County
Each reading below is measured for Fannin 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 Fannin County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Fannin 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
MeasuredFannin 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
MeasuredFannin 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 Fannin County is in
Fannin County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Texas Blackland Prairies (64%), East Central Texas Plains (23%) and South Central Plains (12%). 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 Fannin County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Fannin 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 Fannin 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What gets applied to farmland in Fannin County
USGS estimates 53,410 lb of Glyphosate on Fannin County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (23,703 lb) and Acephate (10,342 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 Fannin County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Fannin County — 149 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Fannin 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 Fannin County
Closest first, across Fannin County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CADDO WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RED RIVER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RYDER TRUCK RENTALUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RUGH B RIDDLESPERGERUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CONTEL OF TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DIXON MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- RANDOLPH GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HICKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PILGRIM FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ECTOR GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KG CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- GLEN COX PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fannin 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 Fannin County.
Total Sites
149
across Fannin County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Fannin County
Severity Distribution
across Fannin County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fannin County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 125 sites across Fannin 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 Fannin 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 Fannin County average
Your land is one point inside Fannin County
Everything above resolves to Fannin County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 562K 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 Fannin County Average
Fannin County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fannin County
- ●One soil character for all of Fannin County
- ●Frost dates read at Fannin County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fannin County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Fannin County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fannin County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fannin County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fannin County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fannin County average
How we know this about Fannin 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 Fannin County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Fannin County
When does frost risk typically end in Fannin County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fannin 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 Fannin County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fannin 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 Fannin County?
The federal record around Fannin County is a meaningful one — 149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Fannin County's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fannin 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 Fannin County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Fannin County's own scale — its own ~264-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 149 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fannin County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Fannin 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 Fannin CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 149 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Fannin County's boundary and the 561,880 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Fannin County spans, Texas Blackland Prairies the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Fannin 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 Fannin 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 Fannin County's 561,880 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 149 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 Fannin Countyread your own land →