Driftwood, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Driftwood, 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 Driftwood 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 Driftwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Driftwood — the short answer
Driftwood, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 828 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 828 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 Hays County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Driftwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Driftwood's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Driftwood
Each reading below is measured for Driftwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDriftwood runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Hays County, the closest normal to Driftwood) — 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
MeasuredDriftwood 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 Driftwood is in
Driftwood sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Driftwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hays County.
What Grows in Driftwood
Every plant below cleared Driftwood's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Driftwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (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.
Documented around Driftwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Driftwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 634 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Driftwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Driftwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUG HARRISONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LR-58-57-101Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- HEB 611Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- LR-58-57-4 (E-58 Hays)Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- POLO CLUB SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- CORNER STORE 1318Underground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 8995Brownfields · 4.9 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE 2704692Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- GLOSSONS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- SHELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- CENTRAL GARAGEBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- PONTIAC DEALERSHIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Driftwood'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 Driftwood.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Driftwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Driftwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Driftwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Driftwood, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Driftwood. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Driftwood
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 Driftwood average
Your land is one point inside Driftwood
Everything above resolves to Driftwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 828 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hays 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 Driftwood Average
Driftwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Driftwood
- ●One soil character for all of Driftwood
- ●Frost dates read at Driftwood's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Driftwood's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Driftwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Driftwood, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Driftwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Driftwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Driftwood average
How we know this about Driftwood
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 Hays 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 Driftwood
When does frost risk typically end in Driftwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Driftwood typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Driftwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Driftwood 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 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Driftwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Driftwood sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Driftwood?
The federal record around Driftwood shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Driftwood?
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 Driftwood's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Driftwood'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 Driftwood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Driftwood's own scale — the 828 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Driftwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Driftwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Driftwood's boundary and the 828 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Driftwood's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Driftwood checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Driftwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hays County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Driftwood's 828 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hays County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hays 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 Hays County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Driftwood's 828 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Driftwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 828 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Driftwood-wide figureread your own land →
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