Higgins, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Higgins, 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 Higgins 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 Higgins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Higgins — the short answer
Higgins, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 710 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 710 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Higgins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Higgins's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Higgins
Each reading below is measured for Higgins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHiggins runs about 212 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredHiggins sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Higgins is in
Higgins sits in the Southwestern Tablelands — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Higgins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lipscomb County.
What Grows in Higgins
Every plant below cleared Higgins's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Higgins?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Higgins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Higgins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HIGGINS ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ALLEN TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- DOTTIE BS FASHIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- LANDERS OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- PHILLIPS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- JOES SHAMROCK SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PERKS CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- 18N-26W-04 CCC 1Nitrate · 4.7 mi
- Higgins Booster StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- Darwin FlockUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
- 20N-25W-29 CB 1Nitrate · 8.4 mi
- SH-04-63-502Nitrate · 9.1 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Higgins'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 Higgins.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Higgins
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Higgins
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 Higgins average
Your land is one point inside Higgins
Everything above resolves to Higgins as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 710 acres. 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 Higgins Average
Higgins Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Higgins
- ●One soil character for all of Higgins
- ●Frost dates read at Higgins's scale: Apr 3 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Higgins's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Higgins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Higgins, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Higgins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Higgins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Higgins average
How we know this about Higgins
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 Higgins’s own record; 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 Higgins
When does frost risk typically end in Higgins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Higgins typically lands around Apr 3, 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 Apr 24.
When is the first frost in Higgins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Higgins typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Higgins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Higgins sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 3 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 24 to Oct 18, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Higgins?
The federal record around Higgins is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (9), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Higgins?
From about Oct 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 Nov 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Higgins's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Higgins'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 Higgins’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Higgins's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 710 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Higgins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Higgins's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 3 and Nov 1 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Higgins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Higgins's boundary and the 710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Higgins's own centroid, the Southwestern TablelandsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Higgins's 710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lipscomb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lipscomb 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 Lipscomb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Higgins's 710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Higgins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Higgins-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasHiggins sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides