Linden, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Linden, 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 Linden 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 Linden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Linden — the short answer
Linden, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 277 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Cass County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Cass County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~277
- Cass County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Cass County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Linden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Linden's 277-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Linden
Each reading below is measured for Linden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLinden runs about 277 days between hard freezes (read from Cass County, the closest normal to Linden) — 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
MeasuredLinden 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 Linden is in
Linden sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Linden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cass County.
What Grows in Linden
Every plant below cleared Linden's own zone 8b and its 277-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Linden?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Linden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Linden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE PIZZA STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MILSTEP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- JL DUCK 66 SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- CITY OF LINDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DALES CAR CAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DB-16-62-701Nitrate · 1200 ft
- HAYES STOP & SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EZ MART 60Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HAZELS TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MAE LUSTER STEPHENS JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LINDEN FUEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8309Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Linden'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 Linden.
Total Sites
139
within ~10 miles of Linden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Linden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Linden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Linden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 108 sites within ~10 miles of Linden. 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 Linden
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 Linden average
Your land is one point inside Linden
Everything above resolves to Linden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cass 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 Linden Average
Linden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Linden
- ●One soil character for all of Linden
- ●Frost dates read at Linden's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Linden's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Linden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Linden, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Linden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Linden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Linden average
How we know this about Linden
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 Cass 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 Linden
When does frost risk typically end in Linden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Linden typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Linden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Linden typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 277 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Linden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Linden sees about 277 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 15, about 242 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Linden?
The federal record around Linden shows 139 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (108), 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 Linden?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Linden's scale — its 8b band and its 277-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Linden'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 Linden’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Linden's own scale — the 2,259 acres it covers and 139 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Linden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 139 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Linden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Linden's boundary and the 2,259 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~277-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Linden's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Linden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cass County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Linden's 2,259 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cass County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cass 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 Cass County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Linden's 2,259 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Linden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,259 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 Linden-wide figureread your own land →
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