Gregg County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Gregg County lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Gregg County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Gregg 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 Gregg County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gregg County — the short answer
Gregg County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 175K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 175K 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 Gregg County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gregg County's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Gregg County
Across a year, Gregg County accumulates about 5,826 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 128 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 989 hours below 45°F, 106 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 Gregg County
Across Gregg County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Cuthbert, Bowie, and Kirvin are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
18%
Hydric soils
20%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Gregg County
The USDA soil survey maps 64% of Gregg County as well drained — but another 35% drains differently: 16% moderately well drained, 16% somewhat poorly drained.
Cuthbert is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Bowie (19%) and Kirvin (13%).
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 Gregg County
Each reading below is measured for Gregg 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 Gregg 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 Gregg County runs about pH 5.3–5.5, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 20% of Gregg County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGregg County runs about 279 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
The kind of country Gregg County is in
Gregg County sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Gregg County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Gregg County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 279-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 Gregg County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Gregg County
- monarch butterfly148 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Gregg County
USGS estimates 9,034 lb of Dicamba on Gregg County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (4,540 lb) and 2,4-d (4,202 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 Gregg County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Gregg County — 945 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites. 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 Gregg 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 Gregg County
Closest first, across Gregg County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KERR MCGEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TUBOSCOPE - LONE STARUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CITY OF KILGOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HONEY STOP 26Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ROOSTH & GENECOV PRODUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DON M BRAZIELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EAST TEXAS FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LONGVIEW TX ATCTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- AMOCO PIPELINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LONGVIEW TX ASRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SMITH PAUL & LUCILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MAXWELL WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gregg 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 Gregg County.
Sources Checked
across Gregg County
Severity Distribution
across Gregg County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gregg County, two things run higher than the national average across Gregg County — Toxics Release Inventory (77 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (694 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gregg 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 Gregg County average
Your land is one point inside Gregg County
Everything above resolves to Gregg County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 175K 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 Gregg County Average
Gregg County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Gregg County
- ●One soil character for all of Gregg County
- ●Frost dates read at Gregg County's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gregg County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Gregg County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gregg County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gregg County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gregg County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gregg County average
How we know this about Gregg 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 Gregg County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Gregg County
When does frost risk typically end in Gregg County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gregg County typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Gregg County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gregg County sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gregg County?
The federal record around Gregg County is a meaningful one — 945 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (694), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gregg County's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gregg 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 Gregg County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Gregg County's own scale — its own ~279-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 945 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gregg County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gregg County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~279-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Gregg CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 945 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Gregg County's boundary and the 174,963 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gregg County sitting wholly inside the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Gregg County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Gregg 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 Gregg County — the ~279 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 Gregg County's 174,963 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 945 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 Gregg Countyread your own land →