Monahans, 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 Monahans, 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 Monahans 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 Monahans — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Monahans — the short answer
Monahans, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 19K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 19K 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 Monahans's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Monahans's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Monahans
Each reading below is measured for Monahans itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMonahans 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
MeasuredMonahans 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 Monahans is in
Monahans sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Monahans's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Winkler County is mostly High Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Monahans
Every plant below cleared Monahans'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 Monahans?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 5 (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 Monahans
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Monahans. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUN OIL CO W D JOHNSON EBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- HALLEY GASOLINE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 7.3 mi
- BJ CHEMICAL SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 7.5 mi
- ALLSUPS 283Underground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- J & C WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- BOYSAW SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- SUN OIL CO A B GORDON BBrownfields · 7.8 mi
- RONNIES WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- EARLS FLAT & GASOLINE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- GLENN REXUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- DONS GROCERY & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
- STAR ELECTRIC OF TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Monahans'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 Monahans.
Total Sites
27
within ~10 miles of Monahans
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Monahans
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Monahans
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Monahans, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Monahans — Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (19 sites). 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Monahans
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 Monahans average
Your land is one point inside Monahans
Everything above resolves to Monahans as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 19K 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 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 Monahans Average
Monahans Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Monahans
- ●One soil character for all of Monahans
- ●Frost dates read at Monahans's scale: Mar 5 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Monahans's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Monahans
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Monahans, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Monahans averages can't show:
We read public map data around Monahans — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Monahans average
How we know this about Monahans
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 Monahans’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 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 Monahans
When does frost risk typically end in Monahans?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Monahans typically lands around Mar 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Monahans?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Monahans 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 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Monahans?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Monahans sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 5 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 26 to Nov 2, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Monahans?
The federal record around Monahans is light — 27 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Brownfields record about 7.3 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 Monahans?
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 Monahans's scale — its 8a band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Monahans'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 Monahans’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Monahans's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 18,509 acres it covers and 27 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Monahans's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Monahans's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 5 and Nov 16 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 27 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Monahans, the closest Brownfields record about 7.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Monahans's boundary and the 18,509 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Monahans sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Monahans's 18,509 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Winkler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Winkler 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 Winkler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Monahans's 18,509 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Monahans you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,509 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 7.3 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 Monahans-wide figureread your own land →