Kennard, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kennard, 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 Kennard 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 Kennard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Kennard — the short answer
Kennard, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 830 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 830 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 Houston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kennard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kennard's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kennard
Each reading below is measured for Kennard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKennard runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Houston County, the closest normal to Kennard) — 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
MeasuredKennard 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 Kennard is in
Kennard sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kennard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houston County.
What Grows in Kennard
Every plant below cleared Kennard's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kennard?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Kennard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kennard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EMS MANAGEMENT BROADWAYBrownfields · 300 ft
- HAZPAKBrownfields · 700 ft
- TRANSIT MIX LA PORTE PLANT PLANT #1401Toxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- SWS HOLDINGS PASADENAToxics Release Inventory · 1100 ft
- THOMAS CORNER FINE FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CURRY GROCERY & STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- PA-38-39-901Nitrate · 2.9 mi
- LAKESIDE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
Measured from Kennard'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 Kennard.
Total Sites
9
within ~10 miles of Kennard
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kennard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kennard
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Kennard
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 Kennard average
Your land is one point inside Kennard
Everything above resolves to Kennard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 830 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Houston 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 Kennard Average
Kennard Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kennard
- ●One soil character for all of Kennard
- ●Frost dates read at Kennard's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kennard's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kennard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kennard, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kennard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kennard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kennard average
How we know this about Kennard
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 Houston 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 Kennard
When does frost risk typically end in Kennard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kennard typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Kennard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kennard typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kennard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kennard sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 18, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kennard?
The federal record around Kennard is light — 9 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Kennard?
From about Nov 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Kennard's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kennard'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 Kennard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kennard's own scale — the 830 acres it covers and 9 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kennard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 9 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kennard, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kennard's boundary and the 830 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kennard's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kennard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Houston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kennard's 830 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Houston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Houston 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 Houston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kennard's 830 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kennard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 830 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Kennard-wide figureread your own land →
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