Ingram, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Ingram, 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 Ingram 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 Ingram — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ingram — the short answer
Ingram, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 939 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Kerr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Kerr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- Kerr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 939 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 Kerr County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Ingram's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ingram's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ingram
Each reading below is measured for Ingram itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsIngram runs about 251 days between hard freezes (read from Kerr County, the closest normal to Ingram) — 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
MeasuredIngram 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 Ingram is in
Ingram sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ingram's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kerr County.
What Grows in Ingram
Every plant below cleared Ingram's own zone 8b and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ingram?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — 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 Ingram
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ingram. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILL COUNTRY TELEPHONE COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LONE STAR HUNTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- NEU MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- NEU-MART 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- INGRAM CAR CARE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MINI MART 7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- INGRAM DAM CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JOE HUDSON'S COLLISION CENTERBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- NATURE BLINDS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- DIETZEL AEROSPACEToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- RJ-56-63-207Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- THE CROSSING-KERRVILLE KOAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ingram'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 Ingram.
Total Sites
144
within ~10 miles of Ingram
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ingram
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ingram
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ingram, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ingram — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (111 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 Ingram
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 Ingram average
Your land is one point inside Ingram
Everything above resolves to Ingram as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 939 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kerr 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 Ingram Average
Ingram Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Ingram
- ●One soil character for all of Ingram
- ●Frost dates read at Ingram's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ingram's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ingram
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ingram, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ingram averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ingram — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ingram average
How we know this about Ingram
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 Kerr 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 Ingram
When does frost risk typically end in Ingram?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ingram typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Ingram?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ingram typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ingram?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ingram sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 3, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ingram?
The federal record around Ingram is a meaningful one — 144 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (111), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Ingram?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ingram's scale — its 8b band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ingram'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 Ingram’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ingram's own scale — the 939 acres it covers and 144 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ingram's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 144 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ingram, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ingram's boundary and the 939 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ingram's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ingram has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kerr County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ingram's 939 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kerr County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kerr 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 Kerr County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ingram's 939 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ingram you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 939 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 Ingram-wide figureread your own land →
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