Kerens, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Kerens, 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 Kerens 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 Kerens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kerens — the short answer
Kerens, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 17
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Navarro County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Navarro County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kerens's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kerens's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kerens
Each reading below is measured for Kerens itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKerens runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Navarro County, the closest normal to Kerens) — 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
MeasuredKerens 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 Kerens is in
Kerens sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Kerens's own centroid rather than borrowed from Navarro County.
What Grows in Kerens
Every plant below cleared Kerens's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kerens?
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 Jan 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 17 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Kerens
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kerens. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DAVID R OJEDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- WOLF TIRE & COMPRESSORUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- KERENS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- BUSY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CITY OF KERENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- D & L AUCTION SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TY-33-55-702Nitrate · 1200 ft
- DONS TIRE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- KERENS ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- KERENS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KERENS QUIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PERRYS TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kerens'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 Kerens.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of Kerens
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kerens
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kerens
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kerens, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kerens — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (26 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kerens
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 Kerens average
Your land is one point inside Kerens
Everything above resolves to Kerens as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Navarro 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 Kerens Average
Kerens Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kerens
- ●One soil character for all of Kerens
- ●Frost dates read at Kerens's scale: Feb 17 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kerens's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kerens
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kerens, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kerens averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kerens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kerens average
How we know this about Kerens
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 Navarro 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 Kerens
When does frost risk typically end in Kerens?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kerens typically lands around Feb 17, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Kerens?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kerens 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 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kerens?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kerens sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 17 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 10 to Nov 18, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kerens?
The federal record around Kerens is a meaningful one — 66 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), 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 Kerens?
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 Kerens's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kerens'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 Kerens’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kerens's own scale — the 1,601 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kerens's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kerens, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kerens's boundary and the 1,601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kerens's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kerens has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Navarro County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kerens's 1,601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Navarro County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Navarro 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 Navarro County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kerens's 1,601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kerens you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,601 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 Kerens-wide figureread your own land →
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