Grays Prairie, 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 Grays Prairie, 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 Grays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grays Prairie — the short answer
Grays Prairie, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 280 days between hard freezes, across 783 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
- 783 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 Grays Prairie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grays Prairie's 280-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grays Prairie
Each reading below is measured for Grays Prairie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGrays Prairie runs about 280 days between hard freezes (read from Kaufman County, the closest normal to Grays Prairie) — 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
MeasuredGrays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie is in
Grays Prairie sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Grays Prairie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kaufman County.
What Grows in Grays Prairie
Every plant below cleared Grays Prairie'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 Grays Prairie?
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 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Grays Prairie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grays Prairie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KELLYS FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SCURRY NORTH FORTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- SCURRY-ROSSER ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- THE LIVELY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- NATIONAL CONTAINER GROUP KEMP TXToxics Release Inventory · 6.2 mi
- VOGELSONG PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- KEMP PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- TXDOT KAUFMAN MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- BROOKSHIRE GROCERY 35Underground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- PROKO INDUSTRIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- NUMO MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 7.1 mi
- WALMART 4164Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grays Prairie'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 Grays Prairie.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Grays Prairie
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grays Prairie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grays Prairie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grays Prairie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grays Prairie — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (103 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Grays Prairie
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 Grays Prairie average
Your land is one point inside Grays Prairie
Everything above resolves to Grays Prairie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 783 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 Grays Prairie Average
Grays Prairie Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Grays Prairie
- ●One soil character for all of Grays Prairie
- ●Frost dates read at Grays Prairie's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grays Prairie's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grays Prairie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grays Prairie, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grays Prairie averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grays Prairie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grays Prairie average
How we know this about Grays Prairie
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 Grays Prairie
When does frost risk typically end in Grays Prairie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie?
The federal record around Grays Prairie is a meaningful one — 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (103), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Grays Prairie?
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 Grays Prairie's scale — its 8b band and its 280-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grays Prairie'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 Grays Prairie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Grays Prairie's own scale — the 783 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grays Prairie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grays Prairie, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grays Prairie's boundary and the 783 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 Grays Prairie's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Grays Prairie 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 Grays Prairie's 783 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 Grays Prairie's 783 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grays Prairie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 783 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 3.4 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 Grays Prairie-wide figureread your own land →
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