Elmo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elmo, 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 Elmo 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 Elmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elmo — the short answer
Elmo, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Kaufman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Kaufman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~280
- Kaufman County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Kaufman County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Elmo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elmo's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elmo
Each reading below is measured for Elmo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElmo runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from Kaufman County, the closest normal to Elmo) — 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
MeasuredElmo 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 Elmo is in
Elmo sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elmo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kaufman County.
What Grows in Elmo
Every plant below cleared Elmo's own zone 8b and its 280-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elmo?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Elmo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elmo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF TERRELLPFAS · 0.7 mi
- ABLES SPRINGS SUDPFAS · 0.7 mi
- ELMO FOOD SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ELMO GROCERY FORMERLY C & C GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ELMO VALEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ABLES SPRINGS CAFE & COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- VYTRONToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
- MCDONALDS FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- COUNTRY JUNCTION GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- PARDNERS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- SCOTTIES PARTY PAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- AUTOZONE DISTRIBUTION CENTERBrownfields · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elmo'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 Elmo.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elmo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elmo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elmo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Elmo — PFAS (11 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Elmo
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 Elmo average
Your land is one point inside Elmo
Everything above resolves to Elmo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kaufman 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 Elmo Average
Elmo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Elmo
- ●One soil character for all of Elmo
- ●Frost dates read at Elmo's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elmo's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elmo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elmo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elmo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elmo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elmo average
How we know this about Elmo
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 Kaufman 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 Elmo
When does frost risk typically end in Elmo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elmo typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Elmo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elmo typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 280 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elmo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elmo sees about 280 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 13, about 245 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elmo?
The federal record around Elmo runs heavier than most — 169 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest PFAS record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elmo?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elmo's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elmo'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 Elmo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elmo's own scale — the 2,559 acres it covers and 169 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elmo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 169 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elmo, the closest PFAS record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elmo's boundary and the 2,559 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~280-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elmo's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elmo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kaufman County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elmo's 2,559 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kaufman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kaufman 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 Kaufman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elmo's 2,559 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elmo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,559 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.7 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 Elmo-wide figureread your own land →
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