Llano County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Llano 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
Llano County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Llano 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 Llano County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Llano County — the short answer
Llano County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 598K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 598K 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 Llano County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Llano County's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Llano County
Across a year, Llano County accumulates about 6,174 growing degree days above 50°F, about 350 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 169 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 957 hours below 45°F, 138 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 Llano County
Across Llano County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Ligon, Keese, and Castell are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a coarse sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Llano County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Llano County as well drained — but another 4% drains differently: 2% somewhat poorly drained, 1% moderately well drained.
Ligon is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Keese (18%) and Castell (14%).
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 Llano County
Each reading below is measured for Llano 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 Llano County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Llano County runs about pH 6.3–7.0, 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
MeasuredLlano County runs about 270 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
MeasuredLlano 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 Llano County is in
Llano 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 Llano County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Llano County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 270-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 Llano County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Llano County
- monarch butterfly38 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Llano County
USGS estimates 6,928 lb of 2,4-d on Llano County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (5,090 lb) and Dicamba (1,893 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 Llano County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Llano County — 95 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 Llano 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 Llano County
Closest first, across Llano County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUEBONNET NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MCCORMICKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- ALEXANDER BOAT DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CITY OF LLANO AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LAKE LBJ MUDUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- LLANO TX VORTACUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- COWART STORE & REALTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36572Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CTRL TX ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- SUNSHINE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BAY MAINTENENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BAUMANS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Llano 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 Llano County.
Total Sites
95
across Llano County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Llano County
Severity Distribution
across Llano County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Llano County, two things run higher than the national average across Llano County — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (81 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Llano 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 Llano County average
Your land is one point inside Llano County
Everything above resolves to Llano County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 598K 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 Llano County Average
Llano County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Llano County
- ●One soil character for all of Llano County
- ●Frost dates read at Llano County's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Llano County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Llano County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Llano County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Llano County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Llano County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Llano County average
How we know this about Llano 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 Llano County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Llano County
When does frost risk typically end in Llano County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Llano County typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
How long is the growing season in Llano County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Llano County sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 9, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Llano County?
The federal record around Llano County is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Llano County's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Llano 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 Llano County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Llano County's own scale — its own ~270-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 95 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Llano County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Llano County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~270-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Llano CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 95 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Llano County's boundary and the 597,804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Llano County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Llano County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Llano 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 Llano County — the ~270 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 Llano County's 597,804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 95 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 Llano Countyread your own land →