Lamesa, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Lamesa, 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 Lamesa 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 Lamesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lamesa — the short answer
Lamesa, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Lamesa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lamesa's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lamesa
Each reading below is measured for Lamesa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLamesa runs about 241 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredLamesa 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 Lamesa is in
Lamesa sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lamesa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dawson County.
What Grows in Lamesa
Every plant below cleared Lamesa's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lamesa?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Lamesa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lamesa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JESSIES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FRANKS GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- ANDERSON CHEVRON SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DERINGTON AUTO CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4437Brownfields · 1000 ft
- HOMER ETHEREDGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- LAMESA CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- POLICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DON GIBSONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NORTH SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ROSSONS EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lamesa'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 Lamesa.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Lamesa
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lamesa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lamesa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lamesa, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 104 sites within ~10 miles of Lamesa. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Lamesa
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 Lamesa average
Your land is one point inside Lamesa
Everything above resolves to Lamesa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K acres. 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 Lamesa Average
Lamesa Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lamesa
- ●One soil character for all of Lamesa
- ●Frost dates read at Lamesa's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lamesa's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lamesa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lamesa, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lamesa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lamesa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lamesa average
How we know this about Lamesa
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 Lamesa’s own record; 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 Lamesa
When does frost risk typically end in Lamesa?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lamesa typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Lamesa?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lamesa typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lamesa?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lamesa sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Nov 1, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lamesa?
The federal record around Lamesa shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lamesa?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lamesa's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lamesa'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 Lamesa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lamesa's own scale — its own ~241-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,268 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lamesa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lamesa's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 15 and the ~241-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lamesa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lamesa's boundary and the 3,268 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lamesa's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lamesa's 3,268 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dawson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dawson 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 Dawson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lamesa's 3,268 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lamesa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,268 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Lamesa-wide figureread your own land →