Shackelford County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Shackelford County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Shackelford 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 Shackelford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shackelford County — the short answer
Shackelford County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 585K 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 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 585K 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 Shackelford County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shackelford County's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Shackelford County
Across a year, Shackelford County accumulates about 5,629 growing degree days above 50°F, about 195 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 91 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 1,358 hours below 45°F, 263 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 Shackelford County
Across Shackelford County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Throck, Lueders, and Palopinto are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.4–8.2, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
25%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Shackelford County
The USDA soil survey maps 98% of Shackelford County as well drained — but another 2% drains differently: 2% moderately well drained.
Throck is the most extensive named soil at 23% of mapped acres, then Lueders (13%) and Palopinto (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 Shackelford County
Each reading below is measured for Shackelford 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 Shackelford 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 Shackelford County runs about pH 7.4–8.2, 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
MeasuredShackelford 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
MeasuredShackelford 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 Shackelford County is in
Shackelford County sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Shackelford County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Shackelford 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 Shackelford County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Shackelford County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Shackelford County
USGS estimates 17,801 lb of 2,4-d on Shackelford County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (12,192 lb) and Dicamba (2,819 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 Shackelford County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Shackelford County — 30 documented sites across 3 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Toxics Release Inventory facility. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Shackelford 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 Shackelford County
Closest first, across Shackelford County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL KING TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BOYD TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MERRICK DAVIS RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALBANY TX RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WELCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALBANY R L435180Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TEXAS OIL RECOVERY INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- OUTLAW CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- WILLIAM KINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HALLIBURTON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- H&M TRUCK AND CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shackelford 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 Shackelford County.
Total Sites
30
across Shackelford County
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
across Shackelford County
Severity Distribution
across Shackelford County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shackelford County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 24 sites across Shackelford County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Shackelford 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 Shackelford County average
Your land is one point inside Shackelford County
Everything above resolves to Shackelford County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 585K 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 Shackelford County Average
Shackelford County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Shackelford County
- ●One soil character for all of Shackelford County
- ●Frost dates read at Shackelford County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shackelford County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Shackelford County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shackelford County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shackelford County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shackelford County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shackelford County average
How we know this about Shackelford 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 Shackelford County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Shackelford County
When does frost risk typically end in Shackelford County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shackelford 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 Shackelford County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shackelford County sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 6, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shackelford County?
The federal record around Shackelford County is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Shackelford County's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shackelford 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 Shackelford County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Shackelford County's own scale — its own ~252-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 30 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shackelford County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shackelford 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 Shackelford CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 30 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Shackelford County's boundary and the 585,142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Shackelford County sitting wholly inside the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Shackelford County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Shackelford 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 Shackelford 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 Shackelford County's 585,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 30 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 Shackelford Countyread your own land →