Leming, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leming, 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 Leming 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 Leming — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leming — the short answer
Leming, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Atascosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Atascosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- Atascosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Atascosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Leming's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leming's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leming
Each reading below is measured for Leming itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLeming runs about 307 days between hard freezes (read from Atascosa County, the closest normal to Leming) — 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
MeasuredLeming sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Leming is in
Leming sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leming's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Atascosa County is mostly Southern Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Leming
Every plant below cleared Leming's own zone 9a and its 307-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leming?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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.
Documented around Leming
Survey cells within 31 miles of Leming checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 669 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Leming
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leming. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICKS DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AL-68-61-413Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- 3006 ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SHEARRER CATTLE FEEDLOTCAFO · 2.6 mi
- GE OIL & GAS LOGGING SERVICESBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CLC SERVICESBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- TERRABELLA ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- AL-68-61-702Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- INDEPENDENCE OILFIELD CHEMICALS PLEASANTON FACILITBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- INDEPENDENCE OILFIELD CHEMICALS PLEASANTON FACILITToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- PRECISION PLATING AKA CS PRO SYSTEMSBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- INDEPENDENCE OILFIELD CHEMICALS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leming'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 Leming.
Total Sites
156
within ~10 miles of Leming
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leming
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leming
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leming, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 58 sites within ~10 miles of Leming. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Leming
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 Leming average
Your land is one point inside Leming
Everything above resolves to Leming as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Atascosa 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 Leming Average
Leming Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Leming
- ●One soil character for all of Leming
- ●Frost dates read at Leming's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leming's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leming
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leming, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leming averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leming — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leming average
How we know this about Leming
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 Atascosa 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 Leming
When does frost risk typically end in Leming?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leming typically lands around Feb 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 Feb 25.
When is the first frost in Leming?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leming typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 307 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leming?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leming sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 24, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leming?
The federal record around Leming shows 156 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Leming?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Leming's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leming'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 Leming’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leming's own scale — the 3,090 acres it covers and 156 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leming's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 156 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leming, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leming's boundary and the 3,090 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Leming sits in the East Central Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Leming checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Leming has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Atascosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leming's 3,090 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Atascosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Atascosa 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 Atascosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leming's 3,090 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leming you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,090 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Leming-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLeming sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides