Menard 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Menard County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Menard 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 Menard County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Menard County — the short answer
Menard County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 577K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 577K 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 Menard County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Menard County's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Menard County
Across a year, Menard County accumulates about 5,609 growing degree days above 50°F, about 215 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 86 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 1,262 hours below 45°F, 167 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 Menard County
Across Menard County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Tarrant, Kavett, and Valera are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very cobbly clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.6–7.9, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
7%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Menard County
Tarrant is the most extensive named soil at 76% of mapped acres, then Kavett (5%) and Valera (4%).
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 Menard County
Each reading below is measured for Menard 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 Menard 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 Menard County runs about pH 7.6–7.9, 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
MeasuredMenard County runs about 248 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
MeasuredMenard 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 Menard County is in
Menard 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 Menard County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Menard County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 248-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 Menard 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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Menard County
- monarch butterfly183 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Menard County
USGS estimates 3,328 lb of 2,4-d on Menard County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (907 lb) and Glyphosate (603 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 Menard County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Menard County — 20 documented sites across 4 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 concentrated animal feeding operation. Large-scale animal operations that can contaminate soil and groundwater with nitrates and pathogens.
The federal record across Menard 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 Menard County
Closest first, across Menard County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF MENARDPFAS · 25 ft
- SAN RIO RIVER ACRESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- OLD STATION-UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PIC-N-PACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TOWN & COUNTRY 26Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- KOTHMANN COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PIONEER OILCO 85Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CLEO R AT&TUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PAYLESS 074Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TRIANGLE S CONVENIENT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- MENARD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TH-56-02-502Nitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Menard 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 Menard County.
Total Sites
20
across Menard County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
across Menard County
Severity Distribution
across Menard County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Menard 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 Menard County average
Your land is one point inside Menard County
Everything above resolves to Menard County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 577K 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 Menard County Average
Menard County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Menard County
- ●One soil character for all of Menard County
- ●Frost dates read at Menard County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Menard County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Menard County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Menard County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Menard County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Menard County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Menard County average
How we know this about Menard 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 Menard County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Menard County
When does frost risk typically end in Menard County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Menard County typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
How long is the growing season in Menard County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Menard County sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 2, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Menard County?
The federal record around Menard County shows 20 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Menard County's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Menard 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 Menard County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Menard County's own scale — its own ~248-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 20 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Menard County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Menard County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Menard CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 20 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Menard County's boundary and the 577,296 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Menard County sitting wholly inside the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Menard County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Menard 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 Menard County — the ~248 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 Menard County's 577,296 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 20 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 Menard Countyread your own land →