Perrin, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Perrin, 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 Perrin 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 Perrin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Perrin — the short answer
Perrin, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- Jack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- Jack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- Jack County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Jack County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Perrin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perrin's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perrin
Each reading below is measured for Perrin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPerrin runs about 254 days between hard freezes (read from Jack County, the closest normal to Perrin) — 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
MeasuredPerrin 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 Perrin is in
Perrin sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Perrin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jack County.
What Grows in Perrin
Every plant below cleared Perrin's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perrin?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Perrin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perrin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PERRIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PERRIN-WHITT CISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DODSON AUTOMOTIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JACKSBORO COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- 2 COUSINS GAS AND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- GS GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.9 mi
Measured from Perrin'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 Perrin.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perrin
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Perrin
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 Perrin average
Your land is one point inside Perrin
Everything above resolves to Perrin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jack 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 Perrin Average
Perrin Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Perrin
- ●One soil character for all of Perrin
- ●Frost dates read at Perrin's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perrin's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perrin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perrin, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perrin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perrin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perrin average
How we know this about Perrin
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 Jack 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 Perrin
When does frost risk typically end in Perrin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perrin typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Perrin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perrin typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perrin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perrin sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 6, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perrin?
The federal record around Perrin is light — 6 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (5), 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 Perrin?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Perrin's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perrin'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 Perrin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Perrin's own scale — the 1,017 acres it covers and 6 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perrin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 6 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perrin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perrin's boundary and the 1,017 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Perrin's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Perrin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jack County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perrin's 1,017 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jack County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jack 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 Jack County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Perrin's 1,017 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perrin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,017 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 Perrin-wide figureread your own land →
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