Hood 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.
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.
Hood County lies within the Cross Timbers — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Hood County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Hood 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 Hood County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hood County — the short answer
Hood County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 269K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 269K 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 Hood County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hood County's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Hood County
Across a year, Hood County accumulates about 5,890 growing degree days above 50°F, about 66 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 138 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 1,141 hours below 45°F, 46 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 Hood County
Across Hood County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Aledo, Windthorst, and Eckrant are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–8.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Hood County
The USDA soil survey maps 75% of Hood County as well drained — but another 21% drains differently: 21% moderately well drained.
Aledo is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Windthorst (10%) and Eckrant (10%).
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 Hood County
Each reading below is measured for Hood 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 Hood 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 Hood County runs about pH 6.5–8.0, 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
MeasuredHood County runs about 273 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
MeasuredHood 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 Hood County is in
Hood County sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Hood County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Hood County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 273-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 Hood 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 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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.
Documented around Hood County
- monarch butterfly169 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Hood County
USGS estimates 5,465 lb of 2,4-d on Hood County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (1,938 lb) and Chlorpyrifos (494 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 Hood County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Hood County — 143 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Hood 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 Hood County
Closest first, across Hood County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DECORDOVA BEND DAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- TRI COUNTY ELEC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- BRAZOS ELECTRIC POWER COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- FLIPPS 1Underground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- SQUAW CREEK PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- TOLAR ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- LIPAN CONOCO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- CRESSON RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- DE CORDOVA BEND ESTATES OWNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- AT&SF RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- GRANBURY READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
- TOTE A BAGUnderground Storage Tanks · 150 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hood 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 Hood County.
Total Sites
143
across Hood County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Hood County
Severity Distribution
across Hood County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hood County, two things run higher than the national average across Hood County — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (111 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hood 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 Hood County average
Your land is one point inside Hood County
Everything above resolves to Hood County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 269K 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 Hood County Average
Hood County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hood County
- ●One soil character for all of Hood County
- ●Frost dates read at Hood County's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hood County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Hood County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hood County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hood County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hood County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hood County average
How we know this about Hood 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 Hood County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Hood County
When does frost risk typically end in Hood County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hood County typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Hood County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hood County sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 11, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hood County?
The federal record around Hood County is a meaningful one — 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hood County's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hood 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 Hood County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Hood County's own scale — its own ~273-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 143 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hood County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hood County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~273-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Hood CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 143 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Hood County's boundary and the 269,274 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hood County sitting wholly inside the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Hood County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Hood 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 Hood County — the ~273 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 Hood County's 269,274 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 143 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 Hood Countyread your own land →