Petty, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Petty, 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 Petty 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 Petty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Petty — the short answer
Petty, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 271 days between hard freezes, across 369 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~271
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 369 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Petty's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Petty's 271-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Petty
Each reading below is measured for Petty itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPetty runs about 271 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Petty) — 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
MeasuredPetty 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 Petty is in
Petty sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Petty's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Petty
Every plant below cleared Petty's own zone 8a and its 271-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Petty?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — 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 Petty
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Petty. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HELENA CHEMCIAL COBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- KWIK CHEK 27Underground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- HALL-VOYER FOUNDATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- MOON MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- HONEY GROVE ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- REESES ZIP GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- 378 FRONTIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.4 mi
- CITY OF ROXTONPFAS · 6.4 mi
- HONEY GROVE GAS AND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- LAMAR TRAILERSToxics Release Inventory · 7.2 mi
- PJ TRAILERSToxics Release Inventory · 7.9 mi
- LOAD TRAILToxics Release Inventory · 8.1 mi
1 more site is on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Petty'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 Petty.
Total Sites
13
within ~10 miles of Petty
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Petty
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Petty
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Petty
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 Petty average
Your land is one point inside Petty
Everything above resolves to Petty as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 369 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar 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 Petty Average
Petty Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Petty
- ●One soil character for all of Petty
- ●Frost dates read at Petty's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Petty's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Petty
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Petty, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Petty averages can't show:
We read public map data around Petty — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Petty average
How we know this about Petty
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 Lamar 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 Petty
When does frost risk typically end in Petty?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Petty typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Petty?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Petty typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 271 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Petty?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Petty sees about 271 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 11, about 236 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Petty?
The federal record around Petty is light — 13 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.5 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 Petty?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Petty's scale — its 8a band and its 271-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Petty'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 Petty’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Petty's own scale — the 369 acres it covers and 13 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Petty's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 13 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Petty, the closest Brownfields record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Petty's boundary and the 369 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~271-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Petty's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Petty has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Petty's 369 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar 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 Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Petty's 369 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Petty you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 369 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.5 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 Petty-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasPetty sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides