Powderly, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Powderly, 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 Powderly 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 Powderly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Powderly — the short answer
Powderly, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 268 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 28
- 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
- ~268
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Powderly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Powderly's 268-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Powderly
Each reading below is measured for Powderly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPowderly runs about 268 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
MeasuredPowderly 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 Powderly is in
Powderly sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Powderly's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lamar County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Powderly
Every plant below cleared Powderly's own zone 8a and its 268-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Powderly?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 31; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 28 (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. 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 Powderly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Powderly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QWIK CHEQUEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KONG FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- U.S. ARMY CAMP MAXEYToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- LAKESIDE GROCERY & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- QUICK TRACK 24Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- OLDCASTLE LAWN & GARDENToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- PAT MAYSE PROJECT OFFICEBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- CAMP MAXEY TRAINING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- ARTHUR CITY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PARIS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- V C GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- LAKESIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Powderly'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 Powderly.
Total Sites
76
within ~10 miles of Powderly
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Powderly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Powderly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Powderly, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Powderly — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (57 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Powderly
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 Powderly average
Your land is one point inside Powderly
Everything above resolves to Powderly as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Powderly Average
Powderly Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Powderly
- ●One soil character for all of Powderly
- ●Frost dates read at Powderly's scale: Feb 28 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Powderly's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Powderly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Powderly, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Powderly averages can't show:
We read public map data around Powderly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Powderly average
How we know this about Powderly
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 Powderly’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 Powderly
When does frost risk typically end in Powderly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Powderly typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 21.
When is the first frost in Powderly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Powderly 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 268 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Powderly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Powderly sees about 268 frost-free days — roughly Feb 28 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 21 to Nov 9, about 233 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Powderly?
The federal record around Powderly shows 76 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (57), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Powderly?
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 Powderly's scale — its 8a band and its 268-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Powderly'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 Powderly’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Powderly's own scale — its own ~268-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,659 acres it covers and 76 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Powderly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Powderly's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Feb 28 and Nov 23 and the ~268-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 76 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Powderly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Powderly's boundary and the 4,659 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~268-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Powderly sits in the East Central Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Powderly's 4,659 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 Powderly's 4,659 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Powderly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,659 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Powderly-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasPowderly sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides