Idalou, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Idalou, 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 Idalou 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 Idalou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Idalou — the short answer
Idalou, Texas: USDA zone 7b, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 646 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 646 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 7b is Idalou's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Idalou's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Idalou
Each reading below is measured for Idalou itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredIdalou runs about 235 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
MeasuredIdalou sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Idalou is in
Idalou sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Idalou's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lubbock County.
What Grows in Idalou
Every plant below cleared Idalou's own zone 7b and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Idalou?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Idalou
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Idalou. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IDALOU ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- JOHNNYS AUTO REPAIRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SINCLAIR FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BRITE WAY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1400 ft
- ALLSUPS 43Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BMP FINANCE GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SWIFT STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WESTERN FIRE EXTINGUISHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- SP-23-19-816Nitrate · 2400 ft
- DUNCANS FULL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 2 JS THRIFTWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WILDWOOD MOBILE HOME VILLAGEPFAS · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Idalou'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 Idalou.
Total Sites
274
within ~10 miles of Idalou
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Idalou
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Idalou
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Idalou, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 238 sites within ~10 miles of Idalou. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Idalou
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 Idalou average
Your land is one point inside Idalou
Everything above resolves to Idalou as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 646 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 Idalou Average
Idalou Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Idalou
- ●One soil character for all of Idalou
- ●Frost dates read at Idalou's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Idalou's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Idalou
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Idalou, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Idalou averages can't show:
We read public map data around Idalou — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Idalou average
How we know this about Idalou
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 Idalou’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 Idalou
When does frost risk typically end in Idalou?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Idalou typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 13.
When is the first frost in Idalou?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Idalou typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Idalou?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Idalou sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 30, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Idalou?
The federal record around Idalou is a meaningful one — 274 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (238), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Idalou?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Idalou's scale — its 7b band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Idalou'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 Idalou’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Idalou's own scale — its own ~235-day season between 28°F freezes, the 646 acres it covers and 274 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Idalou's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Idalou's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 13 and the ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 274 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Idalou, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Idalou's boundary and the 646 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Idalou's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Idalou's 646 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lubbock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lubbock 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 Lubbock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Idalou's 646 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Idalou you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 646 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Idalou-wide figureread your own land →