King County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
King County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across King 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 King County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
King County — the short answer
King County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 583K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 583K 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 King County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against King County's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in King County
Across a year, King County accumulates about 5,390 growing degree days above 50°F, about 434 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 55 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 1,605 hours below 45°F, 510 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 King County
Across King County, the ground is predominantly Inceptisols, where Talpa, Knoco, and Cottonwood are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.5–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Inceptisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
19%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across King County
Talpa is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Knoco (11%) and Cottonwood (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 King County
Each reading below is measured for King 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 King 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 King County runs about pH 7.5–8.2, 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
MeasuredKing County runs about 238 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
MeasuredKing 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 King County is in
King County sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in King County
We scored all 1,086 plants against King County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 238-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 King County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in King County
USGS estimates 11,992 lb of 2,4-d on King County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (8,183 lb) and Dicamba (1,722 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 King County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across King County — 29 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 17 mining sites. Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across King County is light. Growing food here starts from a strong position — a quick pass over the map tells you whether any recorded site sits near your land, and if one does, that's information to plant with, not a reason to stop.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near King County
Closest first, across King County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HENSLEYS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KING COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GUTHRIE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BREWSTERS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BATEMAN LEASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BURNETT RANCHESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WEST TEXAS SUPERQUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELMER KEITH EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TXDOT GUTHRIE MAINTENANCE FACILITYBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- 6666 SUPPLY HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE GUTHRIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- TRUSCOTT PROJECT OFFICEBrownfields · 7.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from King 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 King County.
Severity Distribution
across King County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around King County, Mining runs higher than the national average — 17 sites across King County. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in King 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 King County average
Your land is one point inside King County
Everything above resolves to King County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 583K 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 King County Average
King County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across King County
- ●One soil character for all of King County
- ●Frost dates read at King County's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not King County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in King County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in King County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that King County averages can't show:
We read public map data around King County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the King County average
How we know this about King 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 King County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about King County
When does frost risk typically end in King County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in King County typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
How long is the growing season in King County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, King County sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 31, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in King County?
The federal record around King County is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Mining entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
Everything above is measured at King County's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of King 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 King County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at King County's own scale — its own ~238-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 29 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- King County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- King County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in King CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 29 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- King County's boundary and the 582,958 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- King County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto King 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 King County — the ~238 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 King County's 582,958 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 29 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 King Countyread your own land →