Marlin, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Marlin, 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 Marlin 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 Marlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Marlin — the short answer
Marlin, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 294 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Falls County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Falls County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~294
- Falls 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 Falls County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Marlin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marlin's 294-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marlin
Each reading below is measured for Marlin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMarlin runs about 294 days between hard freezes (read from Falls County, the closest normal to Marlin) — 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
MeasuredMarlin 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 Marlin is in
Marlin sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Marlin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Falls County.
What Grows in Marlin
Every plant below cleared Marlin's own zone 8b and its 294-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Marlin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Marlin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marlin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AJ FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- MODEL LAUNDRY DAVID KENNEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- MARLIN VOLUNTEER FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- PENNINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WILLIAMS FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MARLIN ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CITY OF MARLINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- QUICK NUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FALLS COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WAL-MART STORE 320Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- WAL-MART STORE 320Brownfields · 1900 ft
- FELDMAN DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marlin'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 Marlin.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Marlin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marlin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marlin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marlin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 59 sites within ~10 miles of Marlin. 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 Marlin
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 Marlin average
Your land is one point inside Marlin
Everything above resolves to Marlin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Falls 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 Marlin Average
Marlin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Marlin
- ●One soil character for all of Marlin
- ●Frost dates read at Marlin's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marlin's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marlin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marlin, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marlin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marlin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marlin average
How we know this about Marlin
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 Falls 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 Marlin
When does frost risk typically end in Marlin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Marlin typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Marlin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Marlin typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 294 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Marlin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Marlin sees about 294 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 19, about 259 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marlin?
The federal record around Marlin shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (59), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marlin?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Marlin's scale — its 8b band and its 294-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Marlin'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 Marlin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Marlin's own scale — the 2,891 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marlin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marlin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marlin's boundary and the 2,891 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~294-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marlin's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Marlin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Falls County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Marlin's 2,891 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Falls County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Falls 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 Falls County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marlin's 2,891 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marlin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,891 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Marlin-wide figureread your own land →
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