Wilbarger County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Wilbarger County lies within the Rolling Plains — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Wilbarger County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wilbarger County — the short answer
Wilbarger County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 621K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 621K 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 Wilbarger County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wilbarger County's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Wilbarger County
Across a year, Wilbarger County accumulates about 5,464 growing degree days above 50°F, about 360 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 63 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 1,637 hours below 45°F, 542 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 Wilbarger County
Across Wilbarger County, the ground is predominantly Mollisols, where Tillman, Miles, and Rotan are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a clay loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 7.0–8.0, slightly alkaline. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Mollisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
42%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Wilbarger County
The USDA soil survey maps 93% of Wilbarger County as well drained — but another 5% drains differently: 3% somewhat excessively drained, 2% excessively drained.
Tillman is the most extensive named soil at 18% of mapped acres, then Miles (17%) and Rotan (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 Wilbarger County
Each reading below is measured for Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — 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 Wilbarger County runs about pH 7.0–8.0, 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
MeasuredWilbarger County runs about 247 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
MeasuredWilbarger 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 Wilbarger County is in
Wilbarger County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (91%) and Southwestern Tablelands (9%). 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 Wilbarger County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Wilbarger County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 247-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 Wilbarger County?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Wilbarger County
- monarch butterfly2 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Wilbarger County
USGS estimates 106,365 lb of Glyphosate on Wilbarger County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (36,916 lb) and Dicamba (15,994 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 Wilbarger County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Wilbarger County — 102 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County
Closest first, across Wilbarger County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VACANT FARM STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SHADY LANE CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SANTA ROSAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AMERADA HESS AREA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PAYMASTER SEEDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WILBARGER COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BROWNLEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VERNTEX WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- NORTHSIDE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VERNON AREA OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- OSBORNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HANGARUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County.
Total Sites
102
across Wilbarger County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Wilbarger County
Severity Distribution
across Wilbarger County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wilbarger County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 84 sites across Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County average
Your land is one point inside Wilbarger County
Everything above resolves to Wilbarger County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 621K 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 Wilbarger County Average
Wilbarger County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wilbarger County
- ●One soil character for all of Wilbarger County
- ●Frost dates read at Wilbarger County's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wilbarger County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Wilbarger County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wilbarger County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wilbarger County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wilbarger County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wilbarger County average
How we know this about Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Wilbarger County
When does frost risk typically end in Wilbarger County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wilbarger County typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
How long is the growing season in Wilbarger County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wilbarger County sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 3, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wilbarger County?
The federal record around Wilbarger County shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (84), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Wilbarger County's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Wilbarger County's own scale — its own ~247-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 102 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wilbarger County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wilbarger County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Wilbarger CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 102 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Wilbarger County's boundary and the 621,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Wilbarger County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Wilbarger County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County — the ~247 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 Wilbarger County's 621,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 102 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 Wilbarger Countyread your own land →