Garrison, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Garrison, 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 Garrison 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 Garrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Garrison — the short answer
Garrison, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 751 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Nacogdoches County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Nacogdoches County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Nacogdoches County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 751 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 Nacogdoches County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Garrison's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garrison's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garrison
Each reading below is measured for Garrison itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGarrison runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Nacogdoches County, the closest normal to Garrison) — 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
MeasuredGarrison 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 Garrison is in
Garrison sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garrison's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nacogdoches County.
What Grows in Garrison
Every plant below cleared Garrison's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garrison?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Garrison
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garrison. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GARRISON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- J & S FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- EXPRESS STOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GARRISON ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- K L BARTON & SONS TIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ACME BRICK GARRISON PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ACME BRICK GARRISON PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- ARLAM CONCORD WSCPFAS · 1.5 mi
- RUSSELL SPIVEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- TX-37-12-6Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- XB-37-12-2XXNitrate · 3.3 mi
- C & S SUPPLYBrownfields · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garrison'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 Garrison.
Total Sites
24
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garrison
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Garrison
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 Garrison average
Your land is one point inside Garrison
Everything above resolves to Garrison as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 751 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nacogdoches 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 Garrison Average
Garrison Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Garrison
- ●One soil character for all of Garrison
- ●Frost dates read at Garrison's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garrison's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garrison
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garrison, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garrison averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garrison — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garrison average
How we know this about Garrison
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 Nacogdoches 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 Garrison
When does frost risk typically end in Garrison?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garrison typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Garrison?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garrison typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garrison?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garrison sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 14, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garrison?
The federal record around Garrison shows 24 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Garrison?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garrison's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garrison'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 Garrison’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Garrison's own scale — the 751 acres it covers and 24 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garrison's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 24 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garrison, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garrison's boundary and the 751 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garrison's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Garrison has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nacogdoches County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garrison's 751 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nacogdoches County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nacogdoches 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 Nacogdoches County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garrison's 751 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garrison you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 751 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Garrison-wide figureread your own land →
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