Earth, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Earth, 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 Earth 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 Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Earth — the short answer
Earth, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 213 days between hard freezes, across 769 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~213
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 769 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 7a is Earth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Earth's 213-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Earth
Each reading below is measured for Earth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEarth runs about 213 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
MeasuredEarth sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Earth is in
Earth sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Earth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamb County.
What Grows in Earth
Every plant below cleared Earth's own zone 7a and its 213-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Earth?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Earth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Earth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLSUPS 110Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- EARTH OIL & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- TROY ALLCORN CATTLECAFO · 1.4 mi
- RU-10-54-101Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC SERVICE CO PLANT XBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN PUBLIC SERVICE CO PLANT XToxics Release Inventory · 4.6 mi
- SPRINGLAKE FEEDYARDCAFO · 5.1 mi
- QUINT WAGGONER FEEDYARDCAFO · 8.4 mi
- CBJ FARMSCAFO · 8.4 mi
- SANDHILL CATTLECAFO · 8.5 mi
- OPPLIGER FEEDYARD SUNNYSIDECAFO · 9.2 mi
- SAVAGE TOLK ENERGY SERVICES TOLK STATIONBrownfields · 9.4 mi
5 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Earth'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 Earth.
Total Sites
21
within ~10 miles of Earth
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Earth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Earth
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Earth
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 Earth average
Your land is one point inside Earth
Everything above resolves to Earth as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 769 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 Earth Average
Earth Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Earth
- ●One soil character for all of Earth
- ●Frost dates read at Earth's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Earth's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Earth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Earth, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Earth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Earth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Earth average
How we know this about Earth
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 Earth’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 Earth
When does frost risk typically end in Earth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Earth typically lands around Apr 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Earth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Earth typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 213 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Earth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Earth sees about 213 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 20, about 178 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Earth?
The federal record around Earth is light — 21 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly CAFO entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Earth?
From about Oct 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 Nov 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Earth's scale — its 7a band and its 213-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Earth'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 Earth’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Earth's own scale — its own ~213-day season between 28°F freezes, the 769 acres it covers and 21 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Earth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Earth's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 3 and the ~213-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 21 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Earth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Earth's boundary and the 769 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~213-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Earth's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Earth's 769 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamb 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 Lamb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Earth's 769 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Earth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 769 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Earth-wide figureread your own land →