Panhandle, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Panhandle, 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 Panhandle 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 Panhandle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Panhandle — the short answer
Panhandle, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 212 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 2
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~212
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 7a is Panhandle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Panhandle's 212-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Panhandle
Each reading below is measured for Panhandle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPanhandle runs about 212 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
MeasuredPanhandle sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Panhandle is in
Panhandle sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Panhandle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Carson County.
What Grows in Panhandle
Every plant below cleared Panhandle's own zone 7a and its 212-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Panhandle?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 2 — 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 Panhandle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Panhandle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PURCO SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- ALLSUPS 26Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- PANHANDLE BUTANE & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DISPOSEIT LLCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- AG PRODUCERS COOP PANHANDLE WESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DA-06-45-313Nitrate · 1600 ft
- PANHANDLE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BELL GAS 684Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HUGHES ELEVATORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PANHANDLE BUTANE & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TAYLOR FOOD MART 2076Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- NEXOIL PANHANDLE YARDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Panhandle'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 Panhandle.
Total Sites
43
within ~10 miles of Panhandle
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Panhandle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Panhandle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Panhandle, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Panhandle. 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 Panhandle
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 Panhandle average
Your land is one point inside Panhandle
Everything above resolves to Panhandle 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 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 Panhandle Average
Panhandle Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Panhandle
- ●One soil character for all of Panhandle
- ●Frost dates read at Panhandle's scale: Apr 4 to Nov 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Panhandle's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Panhandle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Panhandle, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Panhandle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Panhandle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Panhandle average
How we know this about Panhandle
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 Panhandle’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 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 Panhandle
When does frost risk typically end in Panhandle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Panhandle typically lands around Apr 4, 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 Apr 25.
When is the first frost in Panhandle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Panhandle typically arrives around Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 19, so the watching starts about Oct 3 — about 212 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Panhandle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Panhandle sees about 212 frost-free days — roughly Apr 4 through Nov 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 25 to Oct 19, about 177 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Panhandle?
The federal record around Panhandle is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Panhandle?
From about Oct 3 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Panhandle's scale — its 7a band and its 212-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Panhandle'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 Panhandle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Panhandle's own scale — its own ~212-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,359 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Panhandle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Panhandle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 4 and Nov 2 and the ~212-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Panhandle, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Panhandle's boundary and the 1,359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~212-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Panhandle's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Panhandle's 1,359 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Carson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Carson 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 Carson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Panhandle's 1,359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Panhandle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,359 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 Panhandle-wide figureread your own land →