Horizon City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Horizon City, 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 Horizon City 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 Horizon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Horizon City — the short answer
Horizon City, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 8b is Horizon City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Horizon City's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Horizon City
Each reading below is measured for Horizon City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHorizon City runs about 283 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredHorizon City 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 Horizon City is in
Horizon City sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Horizon City's own centroid rather than borrowed from El Paso County.
What Grows in Horizon City
Every plant below cleared Horizon City's own zone 8b and its 283-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Horizon City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 Nov 28 — 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.
Documented around Horizon City
Survey cells within 31 miles of Horizon City checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 648 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Horizon City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Horizon City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HORIZON EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 7 ELEVEN 53340Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CEMCO PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- RESYCO INCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #7680Brownfields · 1900 ft
- EL PASO HORIZON CITY 852 CDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EL PASO DIVISIONBrownfields · 2400 ft
- EL PASO DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 2400 ft
- MURPHY USA 7644Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MEDIWASTE DISPOSALBrownfields · 2600 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 3136Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 3136Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Horizon City'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 Horizon City.
Total Sites
493
within ~10 miles of Horizon City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
38 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Horizon City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Horizon City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Horizon City, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 38 sites within ~10 miles of Horizon City. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Horizon City
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 Horizon City average
Your land is one point inside Horizon City
Everything above resolves to Horizon City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Horizon City Average
Horizon City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Horizon City
- ●One soil character for all of Horizon City
- ●Frost dates read at Horizon City's scale: Feb 18 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Horizon City's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Horizon City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Horizon City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Horizon City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Horizon City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Horizon City average
How we know this about Horizon City
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 Horizon City’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 Horizon City
When does frost risk typically end in Horizon City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Horizon City 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 Horizon City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Horizon City typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 283 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Horizon City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Horizon City sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 14, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Horizon City?
The federal record around Horizon City is a meaningful one — 493 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (283), 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 Horizon City?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Horizon City's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Horizon City'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 Horizon City’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Horizon City's own scale — its own ~283-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,577 acres it covers and 493 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Horizon City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Horizon City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 18 and Nov 28 and the ~283-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 493 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Horizon City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Horizon City's boundary and the 5,577 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Horizon City's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Horizon City checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Horizon City's 5,577 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom El Paso County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom El Paso 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 El Paso County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Horizon City's 5,577 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Horizon City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,577 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 Horizon City-wide figureread your own land →