Cross Mountain, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cross Mountain, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Cross Mountain lot. 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 Cross Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cross Mountain — the short answer
Cross Mountain, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Bexar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Cross Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cross Mountain's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cross Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Cross Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCross Mountain runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Bexar County, the closest normal to Cross Mountain) — 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
MeasuredCross Mountain 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 Cross Mountain is in
Cross Mountain sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cross Mountain's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bexar County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cross Mountain
Plants matched to Cross Mountain's USDA zones 8b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Cross Mountain?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Cross Mountain
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cross Mountain checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 675 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cross Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cross Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIGS 404Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AY-68-19-803Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- SAN ANTONIO LEON SPRINGS 698 CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- CORNER STORE 1088Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HEB 566Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3107Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- RUDYS COUNTRY STORE & BAR-B-QUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SHELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- TIMEWISE 061Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40522Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CEDAR CREEK GOLF COURSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CAMP STANLEY STORAGE ACTIVITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cross Mountain'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 Cross Mountain.
Total Sites
347
within ~10 miles of Cross Mountain
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cross Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cross Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cross Mountain, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 104 sites within ~10 miles of Cross Mountain. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cross Mountain
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 Cross Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Cross Mountain
Everything above resolves to Cross Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bexar County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Cross Mountain Average
Cross Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Cross Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Cross Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Cross Mountain's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cross Mountain's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cross Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cross Mountain, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cross Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cross Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cross Mountain average
How we know this about Cross Mountain
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bexar County’s record, because none resolves here; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Cross Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Cross Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Mountain typically lands around Feb 6, 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 Feb 27.
When is the first frost in Cross Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cross Mountain typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cross Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cross Mountain sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 25, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cross Mountain?
The federal record around Cross Mountain is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (168), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cross Mountain?
From about Nov 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Dec 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Dec 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cross Mountain's scale — its 8b band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cross Mountain's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Cross Mountain’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cross Mountain's own scale — the 3,917 acres it covers and 347 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cross Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 347 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cross Mountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cross Mountain's boundary and the 3,917 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Cross Mountain sits in the Edwards Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cross Mountain checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cross Mountain has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bexar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cross Mountain's 3,917 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bexar County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bexar County
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bexar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cross Mountain's 3,917 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cross Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,917 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Cross Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasCross Mountain sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides