Hawkins, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hawkins, 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 Hawkins 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 Hawkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hawkins — the short answer
Hawkins, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Wood County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hawkins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawkins's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawkins
Each reading below is measured for Hawkins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHawkins runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Wood County, the closest normal to Hawkins) — 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
MeasuredHawkins 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 Hawkins is in
Hawkins sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hawkins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wood County.
What Grows in Hawkins
Every plant below cleared Hawkins's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hawkins?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Hawkins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawkins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUPER FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HIRA FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JJS FAST STOP 231Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STOP & SHOP 5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HAWKINS TIRE FIRESuperfund · 0.7 mi
- BROOKSHIRE GROCERY 15Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AIR SEPARATION FACILITYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ZS-34-31-206Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- HAWKINS GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- HOLLY LAKE RANCHPFAS · 3.9 mi
- PRITCHETT WATER SUPPLY CORPORATIONPFAS · 3.9 mi
- AGROPLUS, INC.Brownfields · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawkins'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 Hawkins.
Total Sites
41
within ~10 miles of Hawkins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawkins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawkins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawkins, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Hawkins. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hawkins
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 Hawkins average
Your land is one point inside Hawkins
Everything above resolves to Hawkins as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wood 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 Hawkins Average
Hawkins Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hawkins
- ●One soil character for all of Hawkins
- ●Frost dates read at Hawkins's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawkins's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawkins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawkins, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawkins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawkins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawkins average
How we know this about Hawkins
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 Wood 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 Hawkins
When does frost risk typically end in Hawkins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawkins typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Hawkins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawkins 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 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hawkins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawkins sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hawkins?
The federal record around Hawkins is a meaningful one — 41 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Hawkins?
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 Hawkins's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawkins'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 Hawkins’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hawkins's own scale — the 1,412 acres it covers and 41 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawkins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 41 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawkins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawkins's boundary and the 1,412 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hawkins's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hawkins has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wood County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hawkins's 1,412 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wood 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 Wood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hawkins's 1,412 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawkins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,412 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 Hawkins-wide figureread your own land →
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