Lakehills, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Lakehills, 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 Lakehills 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 Lakehills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lakehills — the short answer
Lakehills, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- Bandera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Bandera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Bandera County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 19K 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 Bandera County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lakehills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakehills's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakehills
Each reading below is measured for Lakehills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLakehills runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Bandera County, the closest normal to Lakehills) — 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
MeasuredLakehills 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 Lakehills is in
Lakehills sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lakehills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bandera County.
What Grows in Lakehills
Every plant below cleared Lakehills's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakehills?
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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Lakehills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakehills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EZ MART 4379Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BIGS 306Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- EZ MART 591Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- AS-68-17-716Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- D & H AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- AS-68-25-505Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- TD-68-25-603Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- TD-68-25-510Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY: BARBARA CLARK, OWNERBrownfields · 5.5 mi
- TD-68-25-602Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- TD-69-32-303Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- TD-68-25-402Nitrate · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakehills'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 Lakehills.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Lakehills
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakehills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakehills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakehills, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Lakehills. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lakehills
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 Lakehills average
Your land is one point inside Lakehills
Everything above resolves to Lakehills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 19K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bandera 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 Lakehills Average
Lakehills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lakehills
- ●One soil character for all of Lakehills
- ●Frost dates read at Lakehills's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakehills's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakehills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakehills, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakehills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakehills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakehills average
How we know this about Lakehills
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 Bandera 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 Lakehills
When does frost risk typically end in Lakehills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakehills typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Lakehills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakehills typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakehills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakehills sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 9, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakehills?
The federal record around Lakehills shows 58 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Lakehills?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakehills's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakehills'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 Lakehills’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lakehills's own scale — the 19,398 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakehills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakehills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakehills's boundary and the 19,398 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lakehills's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lakehills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bandera County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lakehills's 19,398 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bandera County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bandera 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 Bandera County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakehills's 19,398 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakehills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 19,398 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.7 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 Lakehills-wide figureread your own land →
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