Plains, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Plains, 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 Plains 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 Plains — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Plains — the short answer
Plains, Texas: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 959 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 959 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 7b is Plains's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Plains's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Plains
Each reading below is measured for Plains itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPlains runs about 228 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
MeasuredPlains sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Plains is in
Plains sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Plains's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yoakum County.
What Grows in Plains
Every plant below cleared Plains's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Plains?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Plains
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Plains. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PLAINS ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ALLSUPS 365Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TX DOT PLAINSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PLAINS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- UNCLES 100201Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ALLSUPS 119Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- YOAKUM COUNTY PRECINCT 4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WILLIS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- EDDINS WALCHER COToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- BJ SERVICES DENVER CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- S F ENERGY PRODUCTION OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Plains'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 Plains.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Plains
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Plains
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Plains
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Plains, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Plains — Nitrate (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (33 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 Plains
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 Plains average
Your land is one point inside Plains
Everything above resolves to Plains as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 959 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 Plains Average
Plains Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Plains
- ●One soil character for all of Plains
- ●Frost dates read at Plains's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Plains's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Plains
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Plains, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Plains averages can't show:
We read public map data around Plains — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Plains average
How we know this about Plains
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 Plains’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 Plains
When does frost risk typically end in Plains?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Plains typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Plains?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Plains typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Plains?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Plains sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 28, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Plains?
The federal record around Plains shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Plains?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Plains's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Plains'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 Plains’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Plains's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 959 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Plains's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Plains's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 11 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Plains, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Plains's boundary and the 959 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Plains's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Plains's 959 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yoakum County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yoakum 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 Yoakum County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Plains's 959 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Plains you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 959 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Plains-wide figureread your own land →