Hickory Creek, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hickory Creek, 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 Hickory Creek 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 Hickory Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hickory Creek — the short answer
Hickory Creek, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Denton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Hickory Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hickory Creek's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hickory Creek
Each reading below is measured for Hickory Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHickory Creek runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Denton County, the closest normal to Hickory Creek) — 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
MeasuredHickory Creek 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 Hickory Creek is in
Hickory Creek sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hickory Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Denton County.
What Grows in Hickory Creek
Every plant below cleared Hickory Creek's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hickory Creek?
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 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 29 — 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 Hickory Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hickory Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE CITIES PERMANGANATE FIRESuperfund · 1400 ft
- LAKE DALLAS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAST BREAK FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLSUPS 40Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- X PRESSWAY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- I-35 GASOLINE SPILLSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- CITY OF LAKE DALLAS FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ROADIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF LAKE DALLASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BOEING DEFENSE & SPACE-CORINTHToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- BEER BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LAKE DALLAS TELEPHONE COMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hickory Creek'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 Hickory Creek.
Total Sites
756
within ~10 miles of Hickory Creek
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hickory Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hickory Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hickory Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hickory Creek — PFAS (14 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (543 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 Hickory Creek
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 Hickory Creek average
Your land is one point inside Hickory Creek
Everything above resolves to Hickory Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Denton 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 Hickory Creek Average
Hickory Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Hickory Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Hickory Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Hickory Creek's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hickory Creek's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hickory Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hickory Creek, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hickory Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hickory Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hickory Creek average
How we know this about Hickory Creek
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 Denton 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 Hickory Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Hickory Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Creek 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 Hickory Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Creek typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hickory Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hickory Creek sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hickory Creek?
The federal record around Hickory Creek runs heavier than most — 756 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (543), the nearest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Hickory Creek?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hickory Creek's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hickory Creek'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 Hickory Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hickory Creek's own scale — the 3,133 acres it covers and 756 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hickory Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 756 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hickory Creek, the closest Superfund record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hickory Creek's boundary and the 3,133 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hickory Creek's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hickory Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Denton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hickory Creek's 3,133 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Denton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Denton 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 Denton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hickory Creek's 3,133 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hickory Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,133 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund 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 Hickory Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasHickory Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides