Grand Saline, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 Grand Saline, 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 Grand Saline 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 Grand Saline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grand Saline — the short answer
Grand Saline, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Van Zandt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Van Zandt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- Van Zandt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Van Zandt County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Grand Saline's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Saline's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grand Saline
Each reading below is measured for Grand Saline itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGrand Saline runs about 284 days between hard freezes (read from Van Zandt County, the closest normal to Grand Saline) — 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
MeasuredGrand Saline 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 Grand Saline is in
Grand Saline sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grand Saline's own centroid rather than borrowed from Van Zandt County.
What Grows in Grand Saline
Every plant below cleared Grand Saline's own zone 8b and its 284-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grand Saline?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Grand Saline
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grand Saline. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HARRIS PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NL80134Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GRAND SALINE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- B-Z MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- GULF STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- WEST SIDE OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- VACANT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3270Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FOOD MART SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RAINBOW CHEVROLET-BUICKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- GRAND SALINE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Saline'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 Grand Saline.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Grand Saline
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grand Saline
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grand Saline
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grand Saline, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 32 sites within ~10 miles of Grand Saline. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Grand Saline
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 Grand Saline average
Your land is one point inside Grand Saline
Everything above resolves to Grand Saline as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Van Zandt 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 Grand Saline Average
Grand Saline Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Grand Saline
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Saline
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Saline's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Saline's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grand Saline
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Saline, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Saline averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Saline — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Saline average
How we know this about Grand Saline
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 Van Zandt 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 Grand Saline
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Saline?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Saline 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 Grand Saline?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Saline typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 284 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grand Saline?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Saline sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 16, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Saline?
The federal record around Grand Saline shows 64 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), 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 Grand Saline?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grand Saline's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Saline'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 Grand Saline’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Grand Saline's own scale — the 1,342 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Saline's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grand Saline, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grand Saline's boundary and the 1,342 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grand Saline's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Grand Saline has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Van Zandt County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grand Saline's 1,342 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Van Zandt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Van Zandt 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 Van Zandt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grand Saline's 1,342 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grand Saline you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,342 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 Grand Saline-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasGrand Saline sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.