New Boston, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Boston, 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 New Boston 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 New Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Boston — the short answer
New Boston, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Bowie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is New Boston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Boston's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Boston
Each reading below is measured for New Boston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Boston runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Bowie County, the closest normal to New Boston) — 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
MeasuredNew Boston 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 New Boston is in
New Boston sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Boston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bowie County.
What Grows in New Boston
Every plant below cleared New Boston'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 New Boston?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near New Boston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Boston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4232Brownfields · 350 ft
- COUNTY OF BOWIE PREC 4Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- BUD YOUNG MOBILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- C R YOUNGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- STEP IN 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- DWIGHT WOOD MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TRIPLE T FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- RONNIES PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CITY OF NEW BOSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MELTON MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TXI-NEW BOSTON READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- JERRYS MUFFLER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Boston'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 New Boston.
Total Sites
163
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Boston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Boston, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 133 sites within ~10 miles of New Boston. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Boston
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 New Boston average
Your land is one point inside New Boston
Everything above resolves to New Boston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bowie 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 New Boston Average
New Boston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across New Boston
- ●One soil character for all of New Boston
- ●Frost dates read at New Boston's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Boston's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Boston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Boston, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Boston averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Boston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Boston average
How we know this about New Boston
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 Bowie 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 New Boston
When does frost risk typically end in New Boston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Boston typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in New Boston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Boston typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Boston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Boston sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Boston?
The federal record around New Boston is a meaningful one — 163 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in New Boston?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Boston's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Boston'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 New Boston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Boston's own scale — the 2,716 acres it covers and 163 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Boston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 163 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Boston, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Boston's boundary and the 2,716 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 New Boston's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Boston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bowie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Boston's 2,716 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bowie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bowie 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 Bowie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Boston's 2,716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Boston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,716 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 New Boston-wide figureread your own land →
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