Olney, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Olney, 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 Olney 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 Olney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Olney — the short answer
Olney, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Olney's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Olney's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Olney
Each reading below is measured for Olney itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredOlney runs about 257 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
MeasuredOlney 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 Olney is in
Olney sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Olney's own centroid rather than borrowed from Young County.
What Grows in Olney
Every plant below cleared Olney's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Olney?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Olney
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Olney. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- OLNEY ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALLSUPS 274Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- THE CAR LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORMER JIFFY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WOODALL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- FORTY ONE 509080500Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RICHARD & MARKS 66 SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- EDWARD WIESENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CUMMINS BLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- OLNEY MUNICIPAL GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BRAZOS TELEPHONE COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- TOWER EXTRUSIONS LTDToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Olney'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 Olney.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Olney
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Olney
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Olney
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Olney, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 23 sites within ~10 miles of Olney. 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 Olney
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 Olney average
Your land is one point inside Olney
Everything above resolves to Olney as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Olney Average
Olney Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Olney
- ●One soil character for all of Olney
- ●Frost dates read at Olney's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Olney's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Olney
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Olney, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Olney averages can't show:
We read public map data around Olney — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Olney average
How we know this about Olney
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 Olney’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 Olney
When does frost risk typically end in Olney?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Olney typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Olney?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Olney typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Olney?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Olney sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 7, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Olney?
The federal record around Olney is light — 30 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (23), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Olney?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Olney's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Olney'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 Olney’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Olney's own scale — its own ~257-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,295 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Olney's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Olney's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 21 and the ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Olney, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Olney's boundary and the 1,295 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Olney's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Olney's 1,295 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Young County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Young 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 Young County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Olney's 1,295 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Olney you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,295 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Olney-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasOlney sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides