Hamilton, 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.
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 Hamilton, 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 Hamilton 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 Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hamilton — the short answer
Hamilton, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Hamilton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Hamilton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Hamilton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Hamilton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hamilton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hamilton's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hamilton
Each reading below is measured for Hamilton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHamilton runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Hamilton County, the closest normal to Hamilton) — 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
MeasuredHamilton 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 Hamilton is in
Hamilton sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hamilton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Hamilton
Every plant below cleared Hamilton's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hamilton?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Hamilton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hamilton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAMILTON RECYCLING CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 250 ft
- MUNDAYS CLEANERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LILY'S CUSTOM SEWINGBrownfields · 900 ft
- FORMER BULK FUEL STORAGE FACILITY AND RETAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EAST MAIN TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HAMILTON GULF SELF SERVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- BOB & LLOYDS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALLSUPS 226Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DOUG COUNTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HAMILTON FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MARKET BASKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- EALON SCOTTS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hamilton'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 Hamilton.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Hamilton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hamilton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hamilton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hamilton, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Hamilton. 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 Hamilton
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 Hamilton average
Your land is one point inside Hamilton
Everything above resolves to Hamilton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hamilton 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 Hamilton Average
Hamilton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hamilton
- ●One soil character for all of Hamilton
- ●Frost dates read at Hamilton's scale: Feb 22 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hamilton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hamilton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hamilton, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hamilton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hamilton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hamilton average
How we know this about Hamilton
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 Hamilton 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 Hamilton
When does frost risk typically end in Hamilton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hamilton typically lands around Feb 22, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Hamilton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hamilton typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hamilton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hamilton sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 12, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hamilton?
The federal record around Hamilton shows 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hamilton?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hamilton's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hamilton'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 Hamilton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hamilton's own scale — the 2,219 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hamilton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hamilton, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hamilton's boundary and the 2,219 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hamilton's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hamilton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hamilton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hamilton's 2,219 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hamilton's 2,219 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hamilton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,219 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record under a tenth of a mile 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 Hamilton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasHamilton sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides