Ransom Canyon, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ransom Canyon, 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 Ransom Canyon 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 Ransom Canyon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ransom Canyon — the short answer
Ransom Canyon, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 505 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 505 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 Ransom Canyon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ransom Canyon's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ransom Canyon
Each reading below is measured for Ransom Canyon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRansom Canyon runs about 237 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
MeasuredRansom Canyon 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 Ransom Canyon is in
Ransom Canyon sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ransom Canyon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lubbock County.
What Grows in Ransom Canyon
Every plant below cleared Ransom Canyon's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ransom Canyon?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Ransom Canyon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ransom Canyon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GENERAL STORE AT LAKE RANSOM CANYONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAKESIDE AUTOBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- LAKESIDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- GODBOLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- SOLOGEN SLATON YARDBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- SOLOGEN SLATON YARDToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- THERMO FLUIDS INC. (MTP)Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- THERMO FLUIDS INC. (MTP)Toxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- INCE OIL 17Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- RESEARCH SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- DONNAS PAK A SAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- STANCE LABAJUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ransom Canyon'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 Ransom Canyon.
Total Sites
552
within ~10 miles of Ransom Canyon
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ransom Canyon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ransom Canyon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ransom Canyon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 486 sites within ~10 miles of Ransom Canyon. 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 Ransom Canyon
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 Ransom Canyon average
Your land is one point inside Ransom Canyon
Everything above resolves to Ransom Canyon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 505 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 Ransom Canyon Average
Ransom Canyon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ransom Canyon
- ●One soil character for all of Ransom Canyon
- ●Frost dates read at Ransom Canyon's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ransom Canyon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ransom Canyon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ransom Canyon, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ransom Canyon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ransom Canyon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ransom Canyon average
How we know this about Ransom Canyon
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 Ransom Canyon’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 Ransom Canyon
When does frost risk typically end in Ransom Canyon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ransom Canyon typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Ransom Canyon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ransom Canyon typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ransom Canyon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ransom Canyon sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 31, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ransom Canyon?
The federal record around Ransom Canyon is a meaningful one — 552 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (486), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Ransom Canyon?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ransom Canyon's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ransom Canyon'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 Ransom Canyon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ransom Canyon's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 505 acres it covers and 552 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ransom Canyon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ransom Canyon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 14 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 552 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ransom Canyon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ransom Canyon's boundary and the 505 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ransom Canyon's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ransom Canyon's 505 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lubbock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lubbock 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 Lubbock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ransom Canyon's 505 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ransom Canyon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 505 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Ransom Canyon-wide figureread your own land →