Pine Harbor, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Pine Harbor, 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 Pine Harbor 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 Pine Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Harbor — the short answer
Pine Harbor, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Marion County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Marion County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pine Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Harbor's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Pine Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPine Harbor runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Marion County, the closest normal to Pine Harbor) — 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
MeasuredPine Harbor sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pine Harbor is in
Pine Harbor sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Harbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Pine Harbor
Every plant below cleared Pine Harbor's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Harbor?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Pine Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SX-35-13-704Nitrate · 1600 ft
- SX-35-13-703Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- REBL ENVIRONMENTAL OIL RECOVERYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- BRUSHY LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SX-35-20-301Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- SX-35-12-801Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- CRESTWOOD 7-11 GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- CRESTWOOD ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- SX-35-12-502Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- FOUR CORNERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- SX-35-12-402Nitrate · 5.8 mi
- TXDOT JEFFERSON MAINT FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Harbor'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 Pine Harbor.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Pine Harbor
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Harbor
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Harbor, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pine Harbor — Nitrate (26 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (60 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Harbor
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 Pine Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Pine Harbor
Everything above resolves to Pine Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Marion 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 Pine Harbor Average
Pine Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pine Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Harbor's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Harbor's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Harbor, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Harbor average
How we know this about Pine Harbor
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 Marion 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 Pine Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Harbor typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Pine Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Harbor typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Harbor sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 8, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Harbor?
The federal record around Pine Harbor shows 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pine Harbor?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Harbor's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Harbor'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 Pine Harbor’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pine Harbor's own scale — the 2,132 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Harbor, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Harbor's boundary and the 2,132 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Harbor's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pine Harbor has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Marion County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Harbor's 2,132 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Harbor's 2,132 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,132 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Pine Harbor-wide figureread your own land →
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