Loving, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Loving, 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 Loving 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 Loving — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Loving — the short answer
Loving, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Loving's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Loving's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Loving
Each reading below is measured for Loving itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLoving runs about 250 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLoving sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Loving is in
Loving sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Loving's own centroid rather than borrowed from Young County.
What Grows in Loving
Every plant below cleared Loving's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Loving?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Loving
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Loving. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SCHLEGEL SYSTEMS INCBrownfields · 9.7 mi
- LUMINANT GRAHAM STEAM ELECTRIC STATION- DUPLICATE-SEE COMMENTSBrownfields · 9.7 mi
- LUMINANT GRAHAM STEAM ELECTRIC STATION- DUPLICATE-SEE COMMENTSToxics Release Inventory · 9.7 mi
- TEXAS RECREATION GRAHAM DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 9.8 mi
- TEXAS RECREATION GRAHAM DIVISIONBrownfields · 9.8 mi
- GRAHAM WIRE ROPEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- TOWN & COUNTRY QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
Measured from Loving'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 Loving.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Loving
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Loving
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Loving
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Loving
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 Loving average
Your land is one point inside Loving
Everything above resolves to Loving as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K acres. 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 Loving Average
Loving Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Loving
- ●One soil character for all of Loving
- ●Frost dates read at Loving's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Loving's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Loving
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Loving, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Loving averages can't show:
We read public map data around Loving — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Loving average
How we know this about Loving
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 Loving’s own record; 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 Loving
When does frost risk typically end in Loving?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Loving typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Loving?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Loving typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Loving?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Loving sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 4, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Loving?
The federal record around Loving is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Brownfields entries (3), the nearest Brownfields record about 9.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Loving?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Loving's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Loving'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 Loving’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Loving's own scale — its own ~250-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,261 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Loving's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Loving's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 18 and the ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Loving, the closest Brownfields record about 9.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Loving's boundary and the 1,261 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Loving's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Loving's 1,261 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Young County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Young 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 Young County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Loving's 1,261 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Loving you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,261 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 9.7 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 Loving-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLoving sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.