Harker Heights, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Harker Heights, 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 Harker Heights 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 Harker Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Harker Heights — the short answer
Harker Heights, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Bell County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Harker Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Harker Heights's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Harker Heights
Each reading below is measured for Harker Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHarker Heights runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Bell County, the closest normal to Harker Heights) — 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
MeasuredHarker Heights 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 Harker Heights is in
Harker Heights sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Harker Heights's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Bell County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Harker Heights
Every plant below cleared Harker Heights's own zone 8b and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Harker Heights?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Harker Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Harker Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF HARKER HEIGHTSPFAS · 1100 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 35809Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET 6459Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET 6459Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KNIGHTSWAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- LEO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- LITL PIG MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CEFCO 15Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HEIGHTS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- CEFCO 86Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CEFCO 22Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CORNER STORE 1327Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Harker Heights'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 Harker Heights.
Total Sites
368
within ~10 miles of Harker Heights
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Harker Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Harker Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Harker Heights, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Harker Heights — PFAS (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (282 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 Harker Heights
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 Harker Heights average
Your land is one point inside Harker Heights
Everything above resolves to Harker Heights as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bell 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 Harker Heights Average
Harker Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Harker Heights
- ●One soil character for all of Harker Heights
- ●Frost dates read at Harker Heights's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Harker Heights's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Harker Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Harker Heights, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Harker Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around Harker Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Harker Heights average
How we know this about Harker Heights
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 Bell 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 Harker Heights
When does frost risk typically end in Harker Heights?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Harker Heights typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Harker Heights?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Harker Heights typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Harker Heights?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Harker Heights sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 18, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Harker Heights?
The federal record around Harker Heights is a meaningful one — 368 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (282), the nearest PFAS record about 0.2 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 Harker Heights?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Harker Heights's scale — its 8b band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Harker Heights'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 Harker Heights’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Harker Heights's own scale — the 9,999 acres it covers and 368 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Harker Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 368 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Harker Heights, the closest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Harker Heights's boundary and the 9,999 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Harker Heights sits in the Cross Timbers — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Harker Heights has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bell County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Harker Heights's 9,999 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bell 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 Bell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Harker Heights's 9,999 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Harker Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,999 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Harker Heights-wide figureread your own land →
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