Pleasant Valley, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pleasant Valley, 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 Pleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Valley — the short answer
Pleasant Valley, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 8a is Pleasant Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Valley's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Valley
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPleasant Valley runs about 260 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPleasant Valley 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 Pleasant Valley is in
Pleasant Valley sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pleasant Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wichita County.
What Grows in Pleasant Valley
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Valley's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Valley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Pleasant Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHELL FOOD MART WINNER CIRCLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 57217Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CEFCO 2001Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MIZELL SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- INTEGRATED PRODUCTION SERVICESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GROZIER & MANNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- UNITED SUPERMARKET 521Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- VALLEY ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 57215Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- POLLARD TRUCK & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- JOSE BEER & WINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- COOKS FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley.
Total Sites
536
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Valley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 434 sites within ~10 miles of Pleasant Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pleasant Valley
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 Pleasant Valley average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Valley
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Pleasant Valley Average
Pleasant Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pleasant Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Valley's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Valley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Valley, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Valley average
How we know this about Pleasant Valley
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 Pleasant Valley’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 Pleasant Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Valley typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Valley sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 9, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Valley?
The federal record around Pleasant Valley is a meaningful one — 536 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (434), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pleasant Valley?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Valley's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Valley'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 Pleasant Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Valley's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,668 acres it covers and 536 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pleasant Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 23 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 536 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Valley's boundary and the 1,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pleasant Valley's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Valley's 1,668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wichita County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wichita 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 Wichita County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Valley's 1,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Pleasant Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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