Freestone County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Freestone County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Freestone 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 Freestone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Freestone County — the short answer
Freestone County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 562K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- 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 8b is Freestone County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Freestone County's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Freestone County
Across a year, Freestone County accumulates about 6,141 growing degree days above 50°F, about 317 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 163 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 778 hours below 45°F, 317 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 Freestone County
Across Freestone County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Edge, Tabor, and Wolfpen are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.5, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
8%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Freestone County
The USDA soil survey maps 57% of Freestone County as well drained — but another 41% drains differently: 27% moderately well drained, 11% somewhat poorly drained.
Edge is the most extensive named soil at 19% of mapped acres, then Tabor (8%) and Wolfpen (7%).
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 Freestone County
Each reading below is measured for Freestone 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 Freestone County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Freestone County runs about pH 5.8–6.5, 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
MeasuredFreestone County runs about 284 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
MeasuredFreestone 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 Freestone County is in
Freestone County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — East Central Texas Plains (93%) and Texas Blackland Prairies (7%). 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 Freestone County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Freestone County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 284-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 Freestone County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Freestone County
- monarch butterfly100 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Freestone County
USGS estimates 8,450 lb of 2,4-d on Freestone County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (6,807 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (3,295 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 Freestone County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Freestone County — 151 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Freestone 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 Freestone County
Closest first, across Freestone County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WORTHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KILLOUGH & ROSS GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BOSSIER CHRYSLER DODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TEAGUE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TEAGUE ISD BUS YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TXO PRODUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FREESTONE SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- POOL PRODUCTION SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DEW QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JET ERA CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- CHEVRON PIPE LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- EAST TEXAS STONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Freestone 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 Freestone County.
Total Sites
151
across Freestone County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Freestone County
Severity Distribution
across Freestone County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Freestone County, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 4 sites across Freestone County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Freestone 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 Freestone County average
Your land is one point inside Freestone County
Everything above resolves to Freestone 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 Freestone County Average
Freestone County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Freestone County
- ●One soil character for all of Freestone County
- ●Frost dates read at Freestone County's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Freestone County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Freestone County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Freestone County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Freestone County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Freestone County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Freestone County average
How we know this about Freestone 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 Freestone County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Freestone County
When does frost risk typically end in Freestone County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Freestone County typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Freestone County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Freestone County sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 17, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Freestone County?
The federal record around Freestone County is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Freestone County's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Freestone 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 Freestone County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Freestone County's own scale — its own ~284-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 151 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Freestone County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Freestone County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~284-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Freestone CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 151 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Freestone County's boundary and the 561,747 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Freestone County spans, East Central Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Freestone County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Freestone 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 Freestone County — the ~284 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 Freestone County's 561,747 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 151 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 Freestone Countyread your own land →