Graham, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Graham, 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 Graham 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 Graham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Graham — the short answer
Graham, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 8a is Graham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Graham's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Graham
Each reading below is measured for Graham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGraham runs about 251 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
MeasuredGraham 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 Graham is in
Graham sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Graham's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Young County is mostly Central Great Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Graham
Every plant below cleared Graham's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Graham?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 18 — 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 Graham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Graham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GRAHAM ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- QUICK STOP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DAY & NIGHT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- INDIANA STREET MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- ASA SMITH OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ROBBYS DOLLAR SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FFP 562Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FOURTH STREET CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TPI 402Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FOURTH STREET TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- JOHNSON 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C & H FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Graham'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 Graham.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Graham
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Graham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Graham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Graham, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 91 sites within ~10 miles of Graham. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Graham
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 Graham average
Your land is one point inside Graham
Everything above resolves to Graham as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Graham Average
Graham Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Graham
- ●One soil character for all of Graham
- ●Frost dates read at Graham's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Graham's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Graham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Graham, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Graham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Graham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Graham average
How we know this about Graham
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 Graham’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 Graham
When does frost risk typically end in Graham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Graham 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 Graham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Graham typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Graham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Graham sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 4, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Graham?
The federal record around Graham shows 110 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Graham?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Graham's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Graham'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 Graham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Graham's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,582 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Graham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Graham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 18 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Graham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Graham's boundary and the 3,582 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Graham sits in the Cross Timbers — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Graham's 3,582 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Young County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Young 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 Young County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Graham's 3,582 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Graham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,582 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Graham-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasGraham sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.