Kerr County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Kerr County lies within the Texas Hill Country — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kerr County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kerr 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 Kerr County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kerr County — the short answer
Kerr County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 706K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 706K 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 8a is Kerr County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kerr County's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Kerr County
Across a year, Kerr County accumulates about 5,603 growing degree days above 50°F, about 221 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 84 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 1,106 hours below 45°F, 11 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 Kerr County
Across Kerr County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Eckrant, Harper, and Kerrville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.3–7.8, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kerr County
Eckrant is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Harper (23%) and Kerrville (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 Kerr County
Each reading below is measured for Kerr 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 Kerr 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 Kerr County runs about pH 7.3–7.8, 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
MeasuredKerr County runs about 251 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredKerr County sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Kerr County is in
Kerr County sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Kerr County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kerr County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 251-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 Kerr County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
Documented around Kerr County
- monarch butterfly26 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kerr County
USGS estimates 6,749 lb of 2,4-d on Kerr County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (2,013 lb) and Dicamba (1,077 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 Kerr County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kerr County — 167 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (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 Kerr 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 Kerr County
Closest first, across Kerr County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VINSONS 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CARTY BEAL HUNT RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CENTER POINT TX VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- THE OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TAYLORS 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CAMP VERDE R AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CAMP VERDE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MIDWAY STAGE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SENTESSIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NBC BANK KERRVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DUGOSH FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- UGRA WATER TRTMNT FACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kerr 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 Kerr County.
Total Sites
167
across Kerr County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Kerr County
Severity Distribution
across Kerr County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kerr County, two things run higher than the national average across Kerr County — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (119 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 Kerr 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 Kerr County average
Your land is one point inside Kerr County
Everything above resolves to Kerr County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 706K 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 Kerr County Average
Kerr County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kerr County
- ●One soil character for all of Kerr County
- ●Frost dates read at Kerr County's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kerr County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kerr County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kerr County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kerr County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kerr County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kerr County average
How we know this about Kerr 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 Kerr County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kerr County
When does frost risk typically end in Kerr County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kerr County typically lands around Mar 11, 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 Apr 1.
How long is the growing season in Kerr County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kerr County sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 3, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kerr County?
The federal record around Kerr County is a meaningful one — 167 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Kerr County's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kerr 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 Kerr County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kerr County's own scale — its own ~251-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 167 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kerr County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kerr County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kerr CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 167 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Kerr County's boundary and the 706,132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kerr County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kerr County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kerr 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 Kerr County — the ~251 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 Kerr County's 706,132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 167 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 Kerr Countyread your own land →