Kaufman 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.
Kaufman 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
Kaufman County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kaufman 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 Kaufman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kaufman County — the short answer
Kaufman County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 500K 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)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 500K 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 Kaufman County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kaufman County's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Kaufman County
Across a year, Kaufman 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 1,020 hours below 45°F, 75 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 Kaufman County
Across Kaufman County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Crockett, Wilson, and Houston Black are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–7.6, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
20%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kaufman County
The USDA soil survey maps 80% of Kaufman County as moderately well drained — but another 16% drains differently: 15% well drained, 1% somewhat poorly drained.
Crockett is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Wilson (12%) and Houston Black (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 Kaufman County
Each reading below is measured for Kaufman 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 Kaufman 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 Kaufman County runs about pH 5.8–7.6, 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
MeasuredKaufman County runs about 280 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
MeasuredKaufman 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 Kaufman County is in
Kaufman County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Texas Blackland Prairies (64%) and East Central Texas Plains (36%). 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 Kaufman County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kaufman County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 280-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 Kaufman 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 Nov 27 — 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 Kaufman County
- monarch butterfly57 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kaufman County
USGS estimates 36,048 lb of Glyphosate on Kaufman County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (26,284 lb) and Acephate (17,119 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 Kaufman County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kaufman County — 351 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Kaufman County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kaufman County
Closest first, across Kaufman County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CARTWRIGHT RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STODGHILL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WATER WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HARVEY W MCANALLY JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HILL TOP GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TERRELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WESTERN FEED STORE & MURPHYS EXXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SHERIFF DEPT LECUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RIGGS GAS & GROCERIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- STUCKEYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- E-Z MART 153Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kaufman 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 Kaufman County.
Sources Checked
across Kaufman County
Severity Distribution
across Kaufman County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kaufman County, two things run higher than the national average across Kaufman County — PFAS (14 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (34 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 Kaufman 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 Kaufman County average
Your land is one point inside Kaufman County
Everything above resolves to Kaufman County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 500K 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 Kaufman County Average
Kaufman County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kaufman County
- ●One soil character for all of Kaufman County
- ●Frost dates read at Kaufman County's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kaufman County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kaufman County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kaufman County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kaufman County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kaufman County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kaufman County average
How we know this about Kaufman 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 Kaufman County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kaufman County
When does frost risk typically end in Kaufman County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kaufman 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 Kaufman County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kaufman County sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 13, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kaufman County?
The federal record around Kaufman County runs heavier than most — 351 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (242), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Kaufman County's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kaufman 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 Kaufman County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kaufman County's own scale — its own ~280-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 351 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kaufman County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kaufman County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~280-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kaufman CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 351 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
- Kaufman County's boundary and the 499,657 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Kaufman County spans, Texas Blackland Prairies the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kaufman County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kaufman 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 Kaufman County — the ~280 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 Kaufman County's 499,657 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 351 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 Kaufman Countyread your own land →