Granite Shoals, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Granite Shoals, 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 Granite Shoals 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 Granite Shoals — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Granite Shoals — the short answer
Granite Shoals, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 281 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~281
- Burnet County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Burnet County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Granite Shoals's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Granite Shoals's 281-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Granite Shoals
Each reading below is measured for Granite Shoals itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGranite Shoals runs about 281 days between hard freezes (read from Burnet County, the closest normal to Granite Shoals) — 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
MeasuredGranite Shoals 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 Granite Shoals is in
Granite Shoals sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Granite Shoals's own centroid rather than borrowed from Burnet County.
What Grows in Granite Shoals
Every plant below cleared Granite Shoals's own zone 8b and its 281-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Granite Shoals?
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 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 28 — 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 Granite Shoals
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Granite Shoals. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROBERT BRITTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- R C MUELLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BUCKS FOOD AND FUEL 9Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JET STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ROCKY TOP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CRACKER BARRELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PHILS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- LCRA THOMAS C FERGUSON POWER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- T C FERGUSON POWER PLANTBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- HORSESHOE BAY RESORT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LCRA WIRTZ DAMBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 17436Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Granite Shoals'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 Granite Shoals.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Granite Shoals
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Granite Shoals
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Granite Shoals
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Granite Shoals, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Granite Shoals — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (72 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Granite Shoals
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 Granite Shoals average
Your land is one point inside Granite Shoals
Everything above resolves to Granite Shoals as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Burnet 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 Granite Shoals Average
Granite Shoals Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Granite Shoals
- ●One soil character for all of Granite Shoals
- ●Frost dates read at Granite Shoals's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Granite Shoals's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Granite Shoals
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Granite Shoals, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Granite Shoals averages can't show:
We read public map data around Granite Shoals — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Granite Shoals average
How we know this about Granite Shoals
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 Burnet 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 Granite Shoals
When does frost risk typically end in Granite Shoals?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Granite Shoals 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 Granite Shoals?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Granite Shoals 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 281 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Granite Shoals?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Granite Shoals sees about 281 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 14, about 246 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Granite Shoals?
The federal record around Granite Shoals is a meaningful one — 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Granite Shoals?
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 Granite Shoals's scale — its 8b band and its 281-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Granite Shoals'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 Granite Shoals’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Granite Shoals's own scale — the 4,522 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Granite Shoals's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Granite Shoals, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Granite Shoals's boundary and the 4,522 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~281-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Granite Shoals's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Granite Shoals has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Burnet County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Granite Shoals's 4,522 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Burnet County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Burnet 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 Burnet County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Granite Shoals's 4,522 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Granite Shoals you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,522 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Granite Shoals-wide figureread your own land →