Palo Pinto, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Palo Pinto, 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 Palo Pinto 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 Palo Pinto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palo Pinto — the short answer
Palo Pinto, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 546 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Palo Pinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Palo Pinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- Palo Pinto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 546 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 Palo Pinto County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Palo Pinto's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palo Pinto's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palo Pinto
Each reading below is measured for Palo Pinto itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPalo Pinto runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from Palo Pinto County, the closest normal to Palo Pinto) — 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
MeasuredPalo Pinto 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 Palo Pinto is in
Palo Pinto sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Palo Pinto's own centroid rather than borrowed from Palo Pinto County.
What Grows in Palo Pinto
Every plant below cleared Palo Pinto's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palo Pinto?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Palo Pinto
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palo Pinto. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PALO PINTO MERCURYSuperfund · 2500 ft
- TADPOLE CAMPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PANBILT GLASSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PALO PINTO PRECINCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CHARLOTTE PIPKINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- THE SQUARE BLDGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CAMP GRADY SPRUCE YMCAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MINERAL WELLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- OREDW FRB MINERAL WELLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MINERAL WELLS L430980Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SMOKE STACK STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- STRAWN BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palo Pinto'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 Palo Pinto.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Palo Pinto
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palo Pinto
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palo Pinto
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Palo Pinto, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Palo Pinto. 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 Palo Pinto
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 Palo Pinto average
Your land is one point inside Palo Pinto
Everything above resolves to Palo Pinto as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 546 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Palo Pinto County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Palo Pinto Average
Palo Pinto Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Palo Pinto
- ●One soil character for all of Palo Pinto
- ●Frost dates read at Palo Pinto's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palo Pinto's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palo Pinto
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palo Pinto, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palo Pinto averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palo Pinto — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palo Pinto average
How we know this about Palo Pinto
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Palo Pinto 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Palo Pinto
When does frost risk typically end in Palo Pinto?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palo Pinto typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Palo Pinto?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palo Pinto typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palo Pinto?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palo Pinto sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 9, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palo Pinto?
The federal record around Palo Pinto is a meaningful one — 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Superfund record about 0.5 miles 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 Palo Pinto?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palo Pinto's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palo Pinto'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 Palo Pinto’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Palo Pinto's own scale — the 546 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palo Pinto's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palo Pinto, the closest Superfund record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palo Pinto's boundary and the 546 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palo Pinto's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Palo Pinto has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Palo Pinto County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palo Pinto's 546 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Palo Pinto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Palo Pinto 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 Palo Pinto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palo Pinto's 546 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palo Pinto you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 546 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.5 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 Palo Pinto-wide figureread your own land →
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