Eldorado, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Eldorado, 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 Eldorado 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 Eldorado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Eldorado — the short answer
Eldorado, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 892 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Schleicher County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Schleicher County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- Schleicher County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 892 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 Schleicher County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Eldorado's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Eldorado's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Eldorado
Each reading below is measured for Eldorado itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsEldorado runs about 253 days between hard freezes (read from Schleicher County, the closest normal to Eldorado) — 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
MeasuredEldorado 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 Eldorado is in
Eldorado sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Eldorado's own centroid rather than borrowed from Schleicher County.
What Grows in Eldorado
Every plant below cleared Eldorado's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Eldorado?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Eldorado
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Eldorado. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STAR STOP FOOD MART 5Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- FFP 707Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- BP PIPELINES CONCHO STABrownfields · 800 ft
- SMOKEYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- FAVILAS HANDY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STRIPES 265Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- TEXACOBrownfields · 2400 ft
- WY-55-12-127Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- AS BEVERAGE BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TEXACO STATION S DIVIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GRIFFIN FUELS BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HALBERT CLEERECO SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Eldorado'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 Eldorado.
Total Sites
29
within ~10 miles of Eldorado
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Eldorado
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Eldorado
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Eldorado, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 21 sites within ~10 miles of Eldorado. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Eldorado
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 Eldorado average
Your land is one point inside Eldorado
Everything above resolves to Eldorado as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 892 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Schleicher County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Eldorado Average
Eldorado Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Eldorado
- ●One soil character for all of Eldorado
- ●Frost dates read at Eldorado's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Eldorado's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Eldorado
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Eldorado, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Eldorado averages can't show:
We read public map data around Eldorado — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Eldorado average
How we know this about Eldorado
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 Schleicher 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 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 Eldorado
When does frost risk typically end in Eldorado?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Eldorado typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Eldorado?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Eldorado typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Eldorado?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Eldorado sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 6, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Eldorado?
The federal record around Eldorado is light — 29 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Eldorado?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Eldorado's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Eldorado'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 Eldorado’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Eldorado's own scale — the 892 acres it covers and 29 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Eldorado's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 29 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Eldorado, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Eldorado's boundary and the 892 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Eldorado's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Eldorado has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Schleicher County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Eldorado's 892 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Schleicher County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Schleicher 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 Schleicher County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Eldorado's 892 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Eldorado you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 892 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Eldorado-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasEldorado sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides