Lake Kiowa, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Kiowa, 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 Lake Kiowa 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 Lake Kiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Kiowa — the short answer
Lake Kiowa, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Cooke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Cooke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Cooke County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Cooke County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Lake Kiowa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Kiowa's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Kiowa
Each reading below is measured for Lake Kiowa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Kiowa runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Cooke County, the closest normal to Lake Kiowa) — 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
MeasuredLake Kiowa sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Lake Kiowa is in
Lake Kiowa sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Kiowa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cooke County.
What Grows in Lake Kiowa
Every plant below cleared Lake Kiowa's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Kiowa?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Lake Kiowa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Kiowa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KIOWA STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- ALI DISCOUNT TOBACCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- B & M GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- HHW CURBSIDEBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- LAKEWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- TEXAS PICK-UPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- GAINESVILLE STATE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- COLLINSVILLE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- JIM & CHARLIS STUFF STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- DIAMOND CROWN STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- KT-18-25-604Nitrate · 5.9 mi
- 82 TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Kiowa'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 Lake Kiowa.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Lake Kiowa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Kiowa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Kiowa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Kiowa, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 112 sites within ~10 miles of Lake Kiowa. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lake Kiowa
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 Lake Kiowa average
Your land is one point inside Lake Kiowa
Everything above resolves to Lake Kiowa as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cooke County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Lake Kiowa Average
Lake Kiowa Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lake Kiowa
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Kiowa
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Kiowa's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Kiowa's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Kiowa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Kiowa, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Kiowa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Kiowa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Kiowa average
How we know this about Lake Kiowa
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Cooke 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Lake Kiowa
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Kiowa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Kiowa typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Lake Kiowa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Kiowa typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Kiowa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Kiowa sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Kiowa?
The federal record around Lake Kiowa shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lake Kiowa?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Kiowa's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Kiowa'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 Lake Kiowa’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lake Kiowa's own scale — the 1,911 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Kiowa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Kiowa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Kiowa's boundary and the 1,911 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Kiowa's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Kiowa has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cooke County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Kiowa's 1,911 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cooke County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cooke 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 Cooke County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Kiowa's 1,911 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Kiowa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,911 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Lake Kiowa-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLake Kiowa sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides