Kimble County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Kimble County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Kimble 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 Kimble County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kimble County — the short answer
Kimble County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 801K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 801K 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 Kimble County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kimble County's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Kimble County
Across a year, Kimble County accumulates about 5,824 growing degree days above 50°F, right at the Texas middle — ahead of 126 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 1,233 hours below 45°F, 138 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 Kimble County
Across Kimble County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Tarrant, Nuvalde, and Menard are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very cobbly clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Kimble County
The USDA soil survey maps 99% of Kimble County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% moderately well drained.
Tarrant is the most extensive named soil at 74% of mapped acres, then Nuvalde (6%) and Menard (3%).
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 Kimble County
Each reading below is measured for Kimble 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 Kimble 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 Kimble County runs about pH 7.6, 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
MeasuredKimble County runs about 252 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
MeasuredKimble 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 Kimble County is in
Kimble 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 Kimble County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Kimble County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 252-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 Kimble County?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Kimble County
- monarch butterfly102 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Kimble County
USGS estimates 2,980 lb of 2,4-d on Kimble County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (1,129 lb) and Triclopyr (323 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 Kimble County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Kimble County — 55 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 brownfield sites. Former commercial or industrial land where legacy contamination may persist.
The federal record across Kimble County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Kimble County
Closest first, across Kimble County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KIMBLE COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JUNCTION TX VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GARDNER & GARDNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TELEGRAPH STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JOES TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- ABANDONED SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SEVERIANO M ANGUIANOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GTSW JUNCTION MICROWAVE RPTR BUILDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SOUTH LLANO RIVER STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MANGES MERCHANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kimble 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 Kimble County.
Severity Distribution
across Kimble County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kimble County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 50 sites across Kimble County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Kimble 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 Kimble County average
Your land is one point inside Kimble County
Everything above resolves to Kimble County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 801K 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 Kimble County Average
Kimble County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Kimble County
- ●One soil character for all of Kimble County
- ●Frost dates read at Kimble County's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kimble County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Kimble County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kimble County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kimble County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kimble County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kimble County average
How we know this about Kimble 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 Kimble County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Kimble County
When does frost risk typically end in Kimble County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kimble County typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
How long is the growing season in Kimble County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kimble County sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 2, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kimble County?
The federal record around Kimble County shows 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Kimble County's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kimble 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 Kimble County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Kimble County's own scale — its own ~252-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 55 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kimble County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Kimble County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Kimble CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 55 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
- Kimble County's boundary and the 800,627 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Kimble County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Kimble County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Kimble 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 Kimble County — the ~252 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 Kimble County's 800,627 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 55 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 Kimble Countyread your own land →