Young County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Young County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Young 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 Young County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Young County — the short answer
Young County, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 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 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- 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 Young County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Young County's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Young County
Across a year, Young County accumulates about 5,691 growing degree days above 50°F, about 133 fewer than the middle Texas county — ahead of 104 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 1,425 hours below 45°F, 330 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 Young County
Across Young County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Bluegrove, Shatruce, and Gowen are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.5–7.5, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Young County
The USDA soil survey maps 90% of Young County as well drained — but another 8% drains differently: 7% moderately well drained, 2% somewhat excessively drained.
Bluegrove is the most extensive named soil at 12% of mapped acres, then Shatruce (10%) and Gowen (6%).
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 Young County
Each reading below is measured for Young 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 Young 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 Young County runs about pH 6.5–7.5, 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
MeasuredYoung County runs about 251 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
MeasuredYoung 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 Young County is in
Young County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Central Great Plains (51%) and Cross Timbers (49%). 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 Young County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Young County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 251-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 Young 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 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 19 — 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.
What gets applied to farmland in Young County
USGS estimates 16,307 lb of 2,4-d on Young County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (9,145 lb) and Dicamba (2,205 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 Young County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Young County — 141 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Young 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 Young County
Closest first, across Young County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FOX HOLLOWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- K & S PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TXU GRAHAM STEAM ELECTRIC STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WESTERN ATLAS INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- YOUNG COUNTY PREC 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- PRECINCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TXDOT MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TOMMYS WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KESSLERS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GRAHAM TX RMLRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- GRAHAM WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Young 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 Young County.
Total Sites
141
across Young County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Young County
Severity Distribution
across Young County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Young County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 116 sites across Young 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 Young 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 Young County average
Your land is one point inside Young County
Everything above resolves to Young 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 Young County Average
Young County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Young County
- ●One soil character for all of Young County
- ●Frost dates read at Young County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Young County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Young County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Young County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Young County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Young County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Young County average
How we know this about Young 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 Young County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Young County
When does frost risk typically end in Young County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Young 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 Young County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Young County sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 5, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Young County?
The federal record around Young County shows 141 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (116), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Young County's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Young 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 Young County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Young County's own scale — its own ~251-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 141 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Young County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Young County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Young CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 141 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Young County's boundary and the 585,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Young County spans, Central Great Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Young 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 Young County — the ~251 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 Young County's 585,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 141 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 Young Countyread your own land →