Menard, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Menard, 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 Menard 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 Menard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Menard — the short answer
Menard, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Menard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- Menard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Menard County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Menard County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Menard's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Menard's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Menard
Each reading below is measured for Menard itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMenard runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Menard County, the closest normal to Menard) — 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
MeasuredMenard 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 Menard is in
Menard sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Menard's own centroid rather than borrowed from Menard County.
What Grows in Menard
Every plant below cleared Menard's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Menard?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Menard
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Menard. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MENARD EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LOWES SUPER S 140Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- MENARD ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MENARD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TRES AMIGOS CONVENIENCE STORE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MENARD MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TH-56-02-502Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- KOTHMANN SHEEP FEEDLOTCAFO · 1.1 mi
- SAN RIO RIVER ACRESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- OLD STATION-UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PIC-N-PACUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TOWN & COUNTRY 26Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Menard'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 Menard.
Total Sites
20
within ~10 miles of Menard
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Menard
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Menard
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.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Menard
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 Menard average
Your land is one point inside Menard
Everything above resolves to Menard as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Menard 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 Menard Average
Menard Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Menard
- ●One soil character for all of Menard
- ●Frost dates read at Menard's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Menard's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Menard
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Menard, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Menard averages can't show:
We read public map data around Menard — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Menard average
How we know this about Menard
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 Menard 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 Menard
When does frost risk typically end in Menard?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Menard 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 Menard?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Menard typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Menard?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Menard sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 2, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Menard?
The federal record around Menard shows 20 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), 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 Menard?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Menard's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Menard'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 Menard’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Menard's own scale — the 1,320 acres it covers and 20 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Menard's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 20 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Menard, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Menard's boundary and the 1,320 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Menard's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Menard has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Menard County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Menard's 1,320 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Menard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Menard 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 Menard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Menard's 1,320 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Menard you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,320 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 Menard-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMenard sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.