Mentone, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mentone, 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 Mentone 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 Mentone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mentone — the short answer
Mentone, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 109 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 Mentone's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mentone's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mentone
Each reading below is measured for Mentone itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMentone runs about 256 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
MeasuredMentone 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 Mentone is in
Mentone sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Mentone's own centroid rather than borrowed from Loving County.
What Grows in Mentone
Every plant below cleared Mentone's own zone 8a and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mentone?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Mentone
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mentone. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MENTONE GAS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
- LOBO PROCESSING PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 6.1 mi
- MARATHON OILCO N MASON CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- ORLA R L435280Underground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
- HOPPER EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.8 mi
Measured from Mentone'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 Mentone.
Total Sites
6
within ~10 miles of Mentone
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mentone
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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 Mentone
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 Mentone average
Your land is one point inside Mentone
Everything above resolves to Mentone as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Mentone Average
Mentone Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Mentone
- ●One soil character for all of Mentone
- ●Frost dates read at Mentone's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mentone's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mentone
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mentone, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mentone averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mentone — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mentone average
How we know this about Mentone
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 Mentone’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 Mentone
When does frost risk typically end in Mentone?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mentone typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Mentone?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mentone typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mentone?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mentone sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 3, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mentone?
The federal record around Mentone is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Toxics Release Inventory entries (3), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 4.9 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 Mentone?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mentone's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mentone'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 Mentone’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mentone's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mentone's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mentone's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 17 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mentone, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 4.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mentone's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mentone's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mentone's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Loving County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Loving 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 Loving County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mentone's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mentone you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 4.9 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 Mentone-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMentone sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides