Preston, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Preston, 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 Preston 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 Preston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Preston — the short answer
Preston, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Preston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Preston's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Preston
Each reading below is measured for Preston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPreston runs about 265 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
MeasuredPreston 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 Preston is in
Preston sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Preston's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grayson County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Preston
Every plant below cleared Preston's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Preston?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Preston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Preston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LITTLE MINERAL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JS CORNER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GRANDPAPPY POINT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PRESTON CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SPEED MARINE & STORAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HIGHPORT MARINA & RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- EISENHOWER YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Marina del ReyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- A-1 LITTLE JOHNBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- POTTSBORO PASSPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Caney Creek ResortUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Vernon's Fish CampUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Preston'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 Preston.
Total Sites
147
within ~10 miles of Preston
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Preston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Preston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Preston, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Preston — Toxics Release Inventory (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (107 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Preston
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 Preston average
Your land is one point inside Preston
Everything above resolves to Preston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Preston Average
Preston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Preston
- ●One soil character for all of Preston
- ●Frost dates read at Preston's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Preston's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Preston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Preston, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Preston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Preston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Preston average
How we know this about Preston
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 Preston’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 Preston
When does frost risk typically end in Preston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Preston typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Preston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Preston typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Preston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Preston sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 10, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Preston?
The federal record around Preston is a meaningful one — 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (107), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Preston?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Preston's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Preston'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 Preston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Preston's own scale — its own ~265-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,221 acres it covers and 147 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Preston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Preston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 4 and Nov 24 and the ~265-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 147 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Preston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Preston's boundary and the 3,221 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Preston 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 Preston's 3,221 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grayson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grayson 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 Grayson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Preston's 3,221 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Preston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,221 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Preston-wide figureread your own land →
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