Ranger, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ranger, 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 Ranger 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 Ranger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ranger — the short answer
Ranger, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Ranger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ranger's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ranger
Each reading below is measured for Ranger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRanger runs about 259 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
MeasuredRanger 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 Ranger is in
Ranger sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ranger's own centroid rather than borrowed from Eastland County.
What Grows in Ranger
Every plant below cleared Ranger's own zone 8a and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ranger?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Ranger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ranger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHETS KMUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- OUTLAWS LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- SUPER SIX 8Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- HAPPY GLAZE DONUTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- VASQUEZ GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CRABTREE PREMIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YESWAY 1066Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CLAY TS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- GUESS TEXACO 80032Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY WATER BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CHESNUTSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- CITY STREET BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ranger'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 Ranger.
Total Sites
59
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ranger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ranger, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Ranger. 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 Ranger
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 Ranger average
Your land is one point inside Ranger
Everything above resolves to Ranger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 city 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 Ranger Average
Ranger Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ranger
- ●One soil character for all of Ranger
- ●Frost dates read at Ranger's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ranger's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ranger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ranger, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ranger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ranger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ranger average
How we know this about Ranger
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Ranger’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Ranger
When does frost risk typically end in Ranger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ranger typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Ranger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ranger typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ranger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ranger sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 7, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ranger?
The federal record around Ranger shows 59 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), 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 Ranger?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ranger's scale — its 8a band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ranger'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 Ranger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ranger's own scale — its own ~259-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,479 acres it covers and 59 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ranger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ranger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 21 and the ~259-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 59 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ranger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ranger's boundary and the 4,479 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ranger's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ranger's 4,479 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Eastland County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Eastland 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 Eastland County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ranger's 4,479 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ranger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,479 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 Ranger-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasRanger sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.