Dawson, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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.
Even in Dawson, 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 Dawson 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 Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dawson — the short answer
Dawson, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Navarro County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Dawson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dawson's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dawson
Each reading below is measured for Dawson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDawson runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Navarro County, the closest normal to Dawson) — 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
MeasuredDawson 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 Dawson is in
Dawson sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Dawson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navarro County.
What Grows in Dawson
Every plant below cleared Dawson's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dawson?
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 Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Dawson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dawson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE HAIR STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- LEES GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- TIGER TOTE 101Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 11225Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- DAWSON TIRE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LISA COSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- PEGGYS PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- WEATHERBY FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- PEACOCKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- J D GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CEFCO 26Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- HAMMER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dawson'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 Dawson.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dawson
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Dawson
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 Dawson average
Your land is one point inside Dawson
Everything above resolves to Dawson as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Navarro 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 Dawson Average
Dawson Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Dawson
- ●One soil character for all of Dawson
- ●Frost dates read at Dawson's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dawson's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dawson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dawson, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dawson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dawson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dawson average
How we know this about Dawson
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 Navarro 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 Dawson
When does frost risk typically end in Dawson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Dawson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dawson typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dawson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dawson sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 18, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dawson?
The federal record around Dawson shows 16 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dawson?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dawson's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dawson'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 Dawson’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Dawson's own scale — the 1,142 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dawson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dawson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dawson's boundary and the 1,142 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dawson's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dawson has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Navarro County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dawson's 1,142 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navarro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navarro 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 Navarro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dawson's 1,142 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dawson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,142 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Dawson-wide figureread your own land →
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