Mexia, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Mexia, 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 Mexia 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 Mexia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mexia — the short answer
Mexia, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Limestone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Limestone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Limestone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Limestone County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mexia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mexia's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mexia
Each reading below is measured for Mexia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMexia runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Limestone County, the closest normal to Mexia) — 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
MeasuredMexia 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 Mexia is in
Mexia sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Mexia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Limestone County.
What Grows in Mexia
Every plant below cleared Mexia's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mexia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Mexia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mexia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BEENE MOTOR CO OLDSBrownfields · 200 ft
- HANDYS MAJESTIC CLEANERSBrownfields · 250 ft
- CITY OF MEXIAUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- MEXIA 562 XP3480Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- CHEVRON USAUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- QUICK MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- DAN ED HAMILTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CEFCO 25Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MEXIA QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- A BRANDTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DIAMOND SHAMROCK CORNER STORE 517Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HEB 467Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mexia'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 Mexia.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Mexia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mexia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mexia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mexia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mexia — Nitrate (26 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Mexia
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 Mexia average
Your land is one point inside Mexia
Everything above resolves to Mexia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Limestone 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 Mexia Average
Mexia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mexia
- ●One soil character for all of Mexia
- ●Frost dates read at Mexia's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mexia's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mexia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mexia, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mexia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mexia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mexia average
How we know this about Mexia
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 Limestone 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 Mexia
When does frost risk typically end in Mexia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mexia typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Mexia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mexia typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mexia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mexia sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mexia?
The federal record around Mexia shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mexia?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mexia's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mexia'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 Mexia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mexia's own scale — the 4,607 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mexia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mexia, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mexia's boundary and the 4,607 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mexia's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mexia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Limestone County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mexia's 4,607 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Limestone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Limestone 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 Limestone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mexia's 4,607 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mexia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,607 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Mexia-wide figureread your own land →
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