Dell City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dell City, 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 Dell City 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 Dell City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dell City — the short answer
Dell City, Texas: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 7b is Dell City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dell City's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dell City
Each reading below is measured for Dell City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDell City runs about 228 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
MeasuredDell City sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Dell City is in
Dell City sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Dell City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hudspeth County.
What Grows in Dell City
Every plant below cleared Dell City's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dell City?
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 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — 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's on the federal record near Dell City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dell City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DELL VALLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PD-48-07-514Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- PD-48-07-5 (07-5F6)Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- PD-48-07-1 (Agri-Dell 15-4)Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- PD-48-07-2 (07-2E1)Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- PD-48-07-709Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- PD-48-07-106Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- PD-18-07-6 (07-4H6)Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- PD-48-07-904Nitrate · 3.8 mi
- PD-48-07-2 (07-1E10)Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- PD 48-07-708Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- PD-48-07-713Nitrate · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dell City'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 Dell City.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Dell City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
52 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dell City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dell City, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Dell City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Dell City
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 Dell City average
Your land is one point inside Dell City
Everything above resolves to Dell City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 city 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 Dell City Average
Dell City Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Dell City
- ●One soil character for all of Dell City
- ●Frost dates read at Dell City's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dell City's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dell City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dell City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dell City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dell City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dell City average
How we know this about Dell City
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Dell City’s own record; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Dell City
When does frost risk typically end in Dell City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dell City typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Dell City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dell City typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dell City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dell City sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 24, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dell City?
The federal record around Dell City shows 53 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Dell City?
From about Oct 8 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 Nov 7 (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 Nov 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dell City's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dell City'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 Dell City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dell City's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,067 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dell City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dell City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 7 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dell City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dell City's boundary and the 1,067 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dell City's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dell City's 1,067 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hudspeth County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hudspeth 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 Hudspeth County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dell City's 1,067 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dell City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,067 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Dell City-wide figureread your own land →