Hill County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Hill 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
Hill County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hill 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 Hill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hill County — the short answer
Hill County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 614K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 614K 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 Hill County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hill County's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hill County
Across a year, Hill County accumulates about 6,126 growing degree days above 50°F, about 302 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 161 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 857 hours below 45°F, 238 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 Hill County
Across Hill County, the ground is predominantly Vertisols, where Houston Black, Ferris, and Heiden are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Vertisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
45%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hill County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Hill County as well drained — but another 42% drains differently: 40% moderately well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Houston Black is the most extensive named soil at 17% of mapped acres, then Ferris (10%) and Heiden (9%).
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 Hill County
Each reading below is measured for Hill 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 Hill County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Hill County runs about pH 7.0–8.2, 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
MeasuredHill County runs about 277 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
MeasuredHill 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 Hill County is in
Hill County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Texas Blackland Prairies (63%) and Cross Timbers (37%). 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 Hill County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hill County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 277-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 Hill 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 Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Hill County
- monarch butterfly6 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hill County
USGS estimates 238,444 lb of Glyphosate on Hill County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (48,506 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (44,794 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 Hill County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hill County — 198 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Hill 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 Hill County
Closest first, across Hill County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FUEL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TX DOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- M C HARRELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BIGHAMS DRIVE IN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- USACE AQUILLA PROJECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MALONE BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ISTASCA PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BILDERBACK UPHOLSTERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JIMMYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- COVINGTON ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DENNIS GERIKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ITASCA R AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hill 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 Hill County.
Total Sites
198
across Hill County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Hill County
Severity Distribution
across Hill County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hill County, two things run higher than the national average across Hill County — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites). 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hill 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 Hill County average
Your land is one point inside Hill County
Everything above resolves to Hill County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 614K 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 Hill County Average
Hill County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hill County
- ●One soil character for all of Hill County
- ●Frost dates read at Hill County's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hill County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hill County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hill County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hill County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hill County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hill County average
How we know this about Hill 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 Hill County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hill County
When does frost risk typically end in Hill County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hill County typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Hill County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hill County sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 14, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hill County?
The federal record around Hill County is a meaningful one — 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (153), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Hill County's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hill 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 Hill County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hill County's own scale — its own ~277-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 198 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hill County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hill County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~277-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hill CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 198 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Hill County's boundary and the 613,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Hill County spans, Texas Blackland Prairies the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hill County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hill 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 Hill County — the ~277 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 Hill County's 613,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 198 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 Hill Countyread your own land →