Lovelady, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lovelady, 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 Lovelady 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 Lovelady — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lovelady — the short answer
Lovelady, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 845 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 845 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 Houston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lovelady's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lovelady's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lovelady
Each reading below is measured for Lovelady itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLovelady runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Houston County, the closest normal to Lovelady) — 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
MeasuredLovelady 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 Lovelady is in
Lovelady sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lovelady's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houston County.
What Grows in Lovelady
Every plant below cleared Lovelady's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lovelady?
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 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Lovelady
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lovelady. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EZ STOP 8Underground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- SARAH FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10185Brownfields · 700 ft
- C R FREEMANUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HOLLIS DRISKELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LOVELADY ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BENCHMARK ENERGY PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- FREEMANS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- THE CONSOLIDATED WSC CENTRAL SYSTEMPFAS · 4.0 mi
- HOUSTON COUNTY WCID 1PFAS · 4.0 mi
- SPRING MAR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- PA-38-60-501Nitrate · 6.9 mi
Measured from Lovelady'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 Lovelady.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Lovelady
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lovelady
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lovelady
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •PFAS do not break down in groundwater. Irrigate from a tested source.
Check your specific parcel in Lovelady
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 Lovelady average
Your land is one point inside Lovelady
Everything above resolves to Lovelady as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 845 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Houston 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 Lovelady Average
Lovelady Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lovelady
- ●One soil character for all of Lovelady
- ●Frost dates read at Lovelady's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lovelady's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lovelady
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lovelady, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lovelady averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lovelady — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lovelady average
How we know this about Lovelady
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 Houston 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 Lovelady
When does frost risk typically end in Lovelady?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lovelady typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Lovelady?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lovelady 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 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lovelady?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lovelady sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 18, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lovelady?
The federal record around Lovelady shows 13 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lovelady?
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 Lovelady's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lovelady'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 Lovelady’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lovelady's own scale — the 845 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lovelady's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lovelady, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lovelady's boundary and the 845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lovelady's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lovelady has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Houston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lovelady's 845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Houston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Houston 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 Houston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lovelady's 845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lovelady you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 845 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 Lovelady-wide figureread your own land →
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