Dime Box, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dime Box, 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 Dime Box 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 Dime Box — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Dime Box — the short answer
Dime Box, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 460 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Lee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 460 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 Lee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Dime Box's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dime Box's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dime Box
Each reading below is measured for Dime Box itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDime Box runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Lee County, the closest normal to Dime Box) — 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
MeasuredDime Box sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Dime Box is in
Dime Box sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dime Box's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Dime Box
Every plant below cleared Dime Box's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dime Box?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Dime Box
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dime Box. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RZ-59-42-203Nitrate · 750 ft
- RZ-59-42-202Nitrate · 1100 ft
- K & C QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ALVINS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BS-59-34-904Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- BS-59-34-505Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- BS-59-34-601Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- RZ-59-33-606Nitrate · 7.2 mi
- DEANVILLE YARDBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- HWY 21 FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- BLUE MOON QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
- LOUIS SAUCEDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dime Box'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 Dime Box.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dime Box
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dime Box
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dime Box, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dime Box — Underground Storage Tanks (43 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Dime Box
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 Dime Box average
Your land is one point inside Dime Box
Everything above resolves to Dime Box as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 460 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lee 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 Dime Box Average
Dime Box Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Dime Box
- ●One soil character for all of Dime Box
- ●Frost dates read at Dime Box's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dime Box's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dime Box
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dime Box, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dime Box averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dime Box — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dime Box average
How we know this about Dime Box
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 Lee 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 Dime Box
When does frost risk typically end in Dime Box?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dime Box typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Dime Box?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dime Box typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dime Box?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dime Box sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 20, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dime Box?
The federal record around Dime Box shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Dime Box?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dime Box's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dime Box'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 Dime Box’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Dime Box's own scale — the 460 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dime Box's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dime Box, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dime Box's boundary and the 460 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dime Box's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Dime Box has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dime Box's 460 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dime Box's 460 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dime Box you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 460 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Dime Box-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasDime Box sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides