Llano, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Llano, 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 Llano 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 Llano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Llano — the short answer
Llano, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Llano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Llano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Llano County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Llano County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Llano's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Llano's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Llano
Each reading below is measured for Llano itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLlano runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Llano County, the closest normal to Llano) — 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
MeasuredLlano 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 Llano is in
Llano sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Llano's own centroid rather than borrowed from Llano County.
What Grows in Llano
Every plant below cleared Llano's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Llano?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (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. 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 Llano
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Llano. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COATS & SON OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BUTTERY HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CLOSED GASOLINE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CITY OF LLANOUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CIRCLE K 3849Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KEYSTOP GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- VOLITE COMPANYSuperfund · 1500 ft
- INMANS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- LLANO FUEL & OIL KEY STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GTE LLANO CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LONE STAR LANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LLANO ISD TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Llano'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 Llano.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Llano
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Llano
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Llano
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Llano, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Llano. 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 Llano
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 Llano average
Your land is one point inside Llano
Everything above resolves to Llano as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Llano 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 Llano Average
Llano Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Llano
- ●One soil character for all of Llano
- ●Frost dates read at Llano's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Llano's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Llano
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Llano, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Llano averages can't show:
We read public map data around Llano — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Llano average
How we know this about Llano
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 Llano 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 Llano
When does frost risk typically end in Llano?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Llano typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Llano?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Llano 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 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Llano?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Llano sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 9, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Llano?
The federal record around Llano is a meaningful one — 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Llano?
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 Llano's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Llano'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 Llano’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Llano's own scale — the 3,389 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Llano's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Llano, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Llano's boundary and the 3,389 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Llano's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Llano has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Llano County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Llano's 3,389 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Llano County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Llano 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 Llano County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Llano's 3,389 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Llano you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,389 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Llano-wide figureread your own land →