Hawk Cove, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hawk Cove, 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 Hawk Cove 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 Hawk Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hawk Cove — the short answer
Hawk Cove, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 236 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Hunt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Hunt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Hunt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 236 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 Hunt County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hawk Cove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawk Cove's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawk Cove
Each reading below is measured for Hawk Cove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHawk Cove runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Hunt County, the closest normal to Hawk Cove) — 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
MeasuredHawk Cove 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 Hawk Cove is in
Hawk Cove sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hawk Cove's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hunt County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Hawk Cove
Every plant below cleared Hawk Cove'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 Hawk Cove?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (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 Hawk Cove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawk Cove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- QUIK SAVE 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10869Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- SCOTTIES KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FUEL CENTER OF TAWAKONIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- ONE STOP 6Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- MARGIES GROCERY & MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- WESTERN AUTO ASSOCIATE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- DUCK COVE BAIT AND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- QUIK SAVE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BROOKSHIRE GROCERY 87Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- EZ MART 4225Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawk Cove'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 Hawk Cove.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of Hawk Cove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawk Cove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawk Cove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawk Cove, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Hawk Cove. 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 Hawk Cove
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 Hawk Cove average
Your land is one point inside Hawk Cove
Everything above resolves to Hawk Cove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 236 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hunt 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 Hawk Cove Average
Hawk Cove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hawk Cove
- ●One soil character for all of Hawk Cove
- ●Frost dates read at Hawk Cove's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawk Cove's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawk Cove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawk Cove, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawk Cove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawk Cove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawk Cove average
How we know this about Hawk Cove
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 Hunt 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 Hawk Cove
When does frost risk typically end in Hawk Cove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawk Cove typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Hawk Cove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawk Cove 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 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawk Cove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawk Cove sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 13, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawk Cove?
The federal record around Hawk Cove shows 45 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hawk Cove?
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 Hawk Cove's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawk Cove'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 Hawk Cove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hawk Cove's own scale — the 236 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawk Cove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawk Cove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawk Cove's boundary and the 236 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Hawk Cove sits in the East Central Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hawk Cove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hunt County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hawk Cove's 236 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hunt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hunt 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 Hunt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hawk Cove's 236 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawk Cove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 236 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hawk Cove-wide figureread your own land →
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