Merkel, 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.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Merkel, 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 Merkel 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 Merkel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Merkel — the short answer
Merkel, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Merkel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Merkel's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Merkel
Each reading below is measured for Merkel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMerkel runs about 255 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
MeasuredMerkel 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 Merkel is in
Merkel sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Merkel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Taylor County.
What Grows in Merkel
Every plant below cleared Merkel's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Merkel?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Merkel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Merkel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AFCO NO 10113Brownfields · 600 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2887Brownfields · 900 ft
- SPRING MARKET 725Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BILL TIMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GENERAL MACHINE WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER FAS-GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PALMER MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DUBOSE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FINA 1730Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- YESWAY 1065Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TAYLOR COUNTY PRECINCT 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Merkel'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 Merkel.
Total Sites
44
within ~10 miles of Merkel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Merkel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Merkel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Merkel, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 7 sites within ~10 miles of Merkel. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Merkel
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 Merkel average
Your land is one point inside Merkel
Everything above resolves to Merkel as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Merkel Average
Merkel Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Merkel
- ●One soil character for all of Merkel
- ●Frost dates read at Merkel's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Merkel's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Merkel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Merkel, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Merkel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Merkel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Merkel average
How we know this about Merkel
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 Merkel’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 Merkel
When does frost risk typically end in Merkel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Merkel typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Merkel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Merkel typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Merkel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Merkel sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 6, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Merkel?
The federal record around Merkel shows 44 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Brownfields 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 Merkel?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Merkel's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Merkel'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 Merkel’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Merkel's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,791 acres it covers and 44 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Merkel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Merkel's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 20 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 44 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Merkel, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Merkel's boundary and the 1,791 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Merkel's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Merkel's 1,791 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Taylor County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Taylor 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 Taylor County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Merkel's 1,791 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Merkel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,791 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Merkel-wide figureread your own land →
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