Denver City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Denver 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 Denver 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 Denver City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Denver City — the short answer
Denver City, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8a is Denver City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Denver City's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Denver City
Each reading below is measured for Denver City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDenver City runs about 239 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
MeasuredDenver City 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 Denver City is in
Denver City sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Denver City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yoakum County.
What Grows in Denver City
Every plant below cleared Denver City's own zone 8a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Denver City?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Denver City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Denver City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2545Brownfields · 100 ft
- GTSW DENVER CITY CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- UNITED FUEL & ENERGY BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- CITY OF DENVER CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- PIONEER OILCO 335Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BROADWAY SUPERETTE 248Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CJR CONTRACTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SUNRISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALLSUPS 205Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- JRS CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- RIO GRANDE DISTRIBUTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- YOAKUM COUNTY PRECT 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Denver 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 Denver City.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Denver City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Denver City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Denver City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Denver City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Denver City — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Denver 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 Denver City average
Your land is one point inside Denver City
Everything above resolves to Denver City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Denver City Average
Denver City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Denver City
- ●One soil character for all of Denver City
- ●Frost dates read at Denver City's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Denver City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Denver City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Denver City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Denver City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Denver City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Denver City average
How we know this about Denver City
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 Denver 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 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 Denver City
When does frost risk typically end in Denver City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Denver City typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Denver City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Denver City typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Denver City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Denver City sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Nov 1, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Denver City?
The federal record around Denver City shows 70 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Brownfields 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 Denver City?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Denver City's scale — its 8a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Denver 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 Denver City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Denver City's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,670 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Denver City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Denver City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 15 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Denver City, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Denver City's boundary and the 1,670 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Denver City's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Denver City's 1,670 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yoakum County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yoakum 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 Yoakum County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Denver City's 1,670 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Denver 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 1,670 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Denver City-wide figureread your own land →