Mineola, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Mineola, 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 Mineola 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 Mineola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mineola — the short answer
Mineola, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Wood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Wood County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mineola's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mineola's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mineola
Each reading below is measured for Mineola itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMineola runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Wood County, the closest normal to Mineola) — 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
MeasuredMineola 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 Mineola is in
Mineola sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mineola's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wood County.
What Grows in Mineola
Every plant below cleared Mineola's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mineola?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Mineola
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mineola. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF MINEOLAUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- SOUTHEAST WOODToxics Release Inventory · 1700 ft
- METRE PRO TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 1700 ft
- MINEOLA PACKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY #1110Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- LILLY FOODSERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PLAS-TECHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CROSS COUNTRY FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRINIDAD BENHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JARMAN WALTON DOLLAR SAV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RUSSELL GREYHOUND BUS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HARDER JONES CHEVROLET OLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mineola'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 Mineola.
Total Sites
78
within ~10 miles of Mineola
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mineola
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mineola
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mineola, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Mineola — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (54 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Mineola
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 Mineola average
Your land is one point inside Mineola
Everything above resolves to Mineola as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wood 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 Mineola Average
Mineola Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mineola
- ●One soil character for all of Mineola
- ●Frost dates read at Mineola's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mineola's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mineola
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mineola, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mineola averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mineola — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mineola average
How we know this about Mineola
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 Wood 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 Mineola
When does frost risk typically end in Mineola?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mineola typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Mineola?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mineola typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mineola?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mineola sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mineola?
The federal record around Mineola shows 78 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mineola?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mineola's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mineola'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 Mineola’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mineola's own scale — the 6,598 acres it covers and 78 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mineola's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 78 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mineola, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mineola's boundary and the 6,598 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mineola's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mineola has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wood County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mineola's 6,598 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wood 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 Wood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mineola's 6,598 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mineola you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,598 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Mineola-wide figureread your own land →
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