Val Verde 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.
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
Val Verde County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Val Verde 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 Val Verde County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Val Verde County — the short answer
Val Verde County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 2.0M acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 2.0M 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 Val Verde County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Val Verde County's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Val Verde County
Across a year, Val Verde County accumulates about 6,724 growing degree days above 50°F, about 900 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 194 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 824 hours below 45°F, 271 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 Val Verde County
Across Val Verde County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Ector, Langtry, and Zorra are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a very cobbly loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.9–8.2, moderately alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Val Verde County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Val Verde County as well drained — but another 1% drains differently: 1% excessively drained.
Ector is the most extensive named soil at 38% of mapped acres, then Langtry (15%) and Zorra (7%).
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 Val Verde County
Each reading below is measured for Val Verde 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 Val Verde 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 Val Verde County runs about pH 7.9–8.2, 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
MeasuredVal Verde County runs about 282 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
MeasuredVal Verde 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 Val Verde County is in
Val Verde County spans 3 EPA Level III ecoregions — Chihuahuan Deserts (43%), Edwards Plateau (43%) and Southern Texas Plains (14%). 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 Val Verde County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Val Verde County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 282-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 Val Verde 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 Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Val Verde County
- monarch butterfly1,544 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Val Verde County
USGS estimates 6,910 lb of 2,4-d on Val Verde County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (2,812 lb) and Triclopyr (666 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 Val Verde County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Val Verde County — 189 documented sites across 6 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 Val Verde 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 Val Verde County
Closest first, across Val Verde County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE HILLS CAFEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKE SIDE MARINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CHAMBERLAIN EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- AMISTAD PARK CAMPGROUNDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SPTCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LOMA ALTA STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- HOLIDAY TRAV-L-PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DEL RIO TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- AMISTAD BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KOUNTRY KORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Val Verde 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 Val Verde County.
Total Sites
189
across Val Verde County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Val Verde County
Severity Distribution
across Val Verde County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Val Verde County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 143 sites across Val Verde County. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Val Verde 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 Val Verde County average
Your land is one point inside Val Verde County
Everything above resolves to Val Verde County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 2.0M 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 Val Verde County Average
Val Verde County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Val Verde County
- ●One soil character for all of Val Verde County
- ●Frost dates read at Val Verde County's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Val Verde County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Val Verde County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Val Verde County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Val Verde County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Val Verde County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Val Verde County average
How we know this about Val Verde 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 Val Verde County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Val Verde County
When does frost risk typically end in Val Verde County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Val Verde County typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
How long is the growing season in Val Verde County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Val Verde County sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Val Verde County?
The federal record around Val Verde County is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (143), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Val Verde County's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Val Verde 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 Val Verde County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Val Verde County's own scale — its own ~282-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 189 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Val Verde County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Val Verde County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~282-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Val Verde CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 189 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Val Verde County's boundary and the 2,012,638 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 3 ecoregions Val Verde County spans, Chihuahuan Deserts the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Val Verde County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Val Verde 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 Val Verde County — the ~282 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 Val Verde County's 2,012,638 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 189 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 Val Verde Countyread your own land →