Morris County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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.
Morris County lies within the Piney Woods — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Morris County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Morris 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 Morris County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Morris County — the short answer
Morris County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 161K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 161K 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 Morris County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Morris County's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Morris County
Across a year, Morris County accumulates about 5,621 growing degree days above 50°F, about 203 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 88 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 1,168 hours below 45°F, 73 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 Morris County
Across Morris County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Bowie, Cuthbert, and Woodtell are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.2, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
21%
Hydric soils
16%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Morris County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Morris County as well drained — but another 36% drains differently: 18% somewhat poorly drained, 13% moderately well drained.
Bowie is the most extensive named soil at 15% of mapped acres, then Cuthbert (13%) and Woodtell (11%).
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 Morris County
Each reading below is measured for Morris 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 Morris 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 Morris County runs about pH 5.5–6.2, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 16% of Morris County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMorris County runs about 274 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
The kind of country Morris County is in
Morris County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — South Central Plains (69%) and East Central Texas Plains (31%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Morris County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Morris County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 274-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 Morris County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Morris County
USGS estimates 2,440 lb of 2,4-d on Morris County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (277 lb) and Triclopyr (156 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 Morris County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Morris County — 128 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Morris 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 Morris County
Closest first, across Morris County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WHITES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LONE STAR TUBULARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STELLAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JAMES DENNISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JERRY BLACKWELL TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MESSIMER OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DAINGERFIELD STATE PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LAKE WELSH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MAGNUM 10Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- WITT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOHNSONS MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Morris 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 Morris County.
Total Sites
128
across Morris County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Morris County
Severity Distribution
across Morris County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Morris County, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 12 sites across Morris County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Morris 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 Morris County average
Your land is one point inside Morris County
Everything above resolves to Morris County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 161K 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 Morris County Average
Morris County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Morris County
- ●One soil character for all of Morris County
- ●Frost dates read at Morris County's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Morris County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Morris County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Morris County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Morris County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Morris County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Morris County average
How we know this about Morris 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 Morris County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Morris County
When does frost risk typically end in Morris County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Morris County typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
How long is the growing season in Morris County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Morris County sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Morris County?
The federal record around Morris County shows 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Morris County's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Morris 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 Morris County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Morris County's own scale — its own ~274-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 128 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Morris County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Morris County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~274-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Morris CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 128 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Morris County's boundary and the 161,273 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Morris County spans, South Central Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Morris 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 Morris County — the ~274 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 Morris County's 161,273 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 128 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 Morris Countyread your own land →