Van Zandt 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Van Zandt County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Van Zandt County — the short answer
Van Zandt County, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 539K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 539K 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 Van Zandt County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Zandt County's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Van Zandt County
Across a year, Van Zandt County accumulates about 5,862 growing degree days above 50°F, about 38 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 134 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 889 hours below 45°F, 206 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 Van Zandt County
Across Van Zandt County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Woodtell, Crockett, and Freestone are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.5, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
9%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Van Zandt County
The USDA soil survey maps 50% of Van Zandt County as well drained — but another 49% drains differently: 31% moderately well drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained.
Woodtell is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Crockett (13%) and Freestone (13%).
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 Van Zandt County
Each reading below is measured for Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County runs about pH 5.5–6.5, 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
MeasuredVan Zandt County runs about 284 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
MeasuredVan Zandt 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 Van Zandt County is in
Van Zandt County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — East Central Texas Plains (92%) and South Central Plains (8%). 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 Van Zandt County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Van Zandt County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 284-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 Van Zandt 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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Van Zandt County
- monarch butterfly3 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Van Zandt County
USGS estimates 17,102 lb of 2,4-d on Van Zandt County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Dicamba (11,011 lb) and Glyphosate (6,039 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 Van Zandt County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Van Zandt County — 277 documented sites across 7 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 Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County
Closest first, across Van Zandt County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- REID BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EDGEWOOD ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BADGLEY LEONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- OTIS ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF CANTON WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PHARES ERNESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- GRAND SALINE MOBIL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THE COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COUNTRY BOYS MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COLFAX STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CECIL CARDERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DENNIS GANDY NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County.
Total Sites
277
across Van Zandt County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Van Zandt County
Severity Distribution
across Van Zandt County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Van Zandt County, two things run higher than the national average across Van Zandt County — PFAS (8 sites) and CAFO (5 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County average
Your land is one point inside Van Zandt County
Everything above resolves to Van Zandt County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 539K 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 Van Zandt County Average
Van Zandt County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Van Zandt County
- ●One soil character for all of Van Zandt County
- ●Frost dates read at Van Zandt County's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Zandt County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Van Zandt County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Zandt County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Zandt County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Zandt County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Zandt County average
How we know this about Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Van Zandt County
When does frost risk typically end in Van Zandt County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Zandt County typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Van Zandt County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Zandt County sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 16, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Van Zandt County?
The federal record around Van Zandt County is a meaningful one — 277 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Van Zandt County's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Van Zandt County's own scale — its own ~284-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 277 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Zandt County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Van Zandt County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~284-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Van Zandt CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 277 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
- Van Zandt County's boundary and the 539,246 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Van Zandt County spans, East Central Texas Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Van Zandt County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County — the ~284 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 Van Zandt County's 539,246 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 277 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 Van Zandt Countyread your own land →