Pilot Point, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pilot Point, 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 Pilot Point 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 Pilot Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pilot Point — the short answer
Pilot Point, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Denton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Pilot Point's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pilot Point's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pilot Point
Each reading below is measured for Pilot Point itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPilot Point runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Denton County, the closest normal to Pilot Point) — 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
MeasuredPilot Point 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 Pilot Point is in
Pilot Point sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pilot Point's own centroid rather than borrowed from Denton County.
What Grows in Pilot Point
Every plant below cleared Pilot Point's own zone 8a and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pilot Point?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Pilot Point
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pilot Point. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PILOT POINT BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CITY MACHINE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SCHONS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- SHIWAKOTIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- DAVID FORD SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MOORE CLNRSBrownfields · 2300 ft
- RAZOR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EVANS STOP N GOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- STEPHENS FUEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CITY OF PILOT POINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DACO COMPOSITE MANUFACTURING INC(DBA CINCINNATI FIBERGLASS TToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- ALLSUPS 313Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pilot Point'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 Pilot Point.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Pilot Point
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pilot Point
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pilot Point
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pilot Point, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pilot Point — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (25 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pilot Point
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 Pilot Point average
Your land is one point inside Pilot Point
Everything above resolves to Pilot Point as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Denton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Pilot Point Average
Pilot Point Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pilot Point
- ●One soil character for all of Pilot Point
- ●Frost dates read at Pilot Point's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pilot Point's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pilot Point
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pilot Point, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pilot Point averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pilot Point — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pilot Point average
How we know this about Pilot Point
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 Denton 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 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 Pilot Point
When does frost risk typically end in Pilot Point?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Point typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Pilot Point?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pilot Point typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pilot Point?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pilot Point sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pilot Point?
The federal record around Pilot Point is a meaningful one — 33 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pilot Point?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pilot Point's scale — its 8a band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pilot Point'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 Pilot Point’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pilot Point's own scale — the 5,048 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pilot Point's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pilot Point, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pilot Point's boundary and the 5,048 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pilot Point's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pilot Point has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Denton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pilot Point's 5,048 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Denton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Denton 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 Denton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pilot Point's 5,048 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pilot Point you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,048 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Pilot Point-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasPilot Point sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides