Leander, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Leander, 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 Leander 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 Leander — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leander — the short answer
Leander, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 25K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 25K 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 Williamson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Leander's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leander's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leander
Each reading below is measured for Leander itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLeander runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Williamson County, the closest normal to Leander) — 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
MeasuredLeander 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 Leander is in
Leander sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Leander's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Williamson County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Leander
Every plant below cleared Leander's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leander?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Leander
Survey cells within 31 miles of Leander checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 623 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leander
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leander. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORNER STORE 1587Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LEANDER ISD TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- AQUATIC INDUSTRIES INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- CHARLES H NULLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36555Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PARK PLACE FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEANDER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JIFFY MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LEANDER QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HEB 592Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 35791Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEANDER 259 DIAL OFFICE XP3099Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leander'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 Leander.
Total Sites
246
within ~10 miles of Leander
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leander
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leander
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leander, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leander — PFAS (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (159 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Leander
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 Leander average
Your land is one point inside Leander
Everything above resolves to Leander as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 25K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Williamson 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 Leander Average
Leander Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Leander
- ●One soil character for all of Leander
- ●Frost dates read at Leander's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leander's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leander
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leander, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leander averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leander — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leander average
How we know this about Leander
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 Williamson 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 Leander
When does frost risk typically end in Leander?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leander typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Leander?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leander 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 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leander?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leander sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 18, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leander?
The federal record around Leander is a meaningful one — 246 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (159), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Leander?
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 Leander's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leander'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 Leander’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leander's own scale — the 24,833 acres it covers and 246 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leander's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 246 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leander, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leander's boundary and the 24,833 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leander sits in the Edwards Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Leander checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Leander has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Williamson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leander's 24,833 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williamson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williamson 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 Williamson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leander's 24,833 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leander you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 24,833 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Leander-wide figureread your own land →
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