Red Lick, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Red Lick, 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 Red Lick 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 Red Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Red Lick — the short answer
Red Lick, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Bowie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Bowie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Red Lick's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Red Lick's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Red Lick
Each reading below is measured for Red Lick itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRed Lick runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Bowie County, the closest normal to Red Lick) — 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
MeasuredRed Lick sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Red Lick is in
Red Lick sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Red Lick's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bowie County.
What Grows in Red Lick
Every plant below cleared Red Lick's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Red Lick?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Red Lick
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Red Lick. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AGRICULTURAL SERVICESBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- HUMCOBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- RECYCLING SERVICESBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- LOVES TRAVEL STOP 473Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ROAD RUNNER 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ALUMAX MILL PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- TCI TEXARKANA, INCBrownfields · 2.8 mi
- TCI TEXARKANA, INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.8 mi
- PARADISE QUICK STOP 6Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TEXAS BEST SMOKEHOUSE 7Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- EZ MART 4292Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- TEXANA TANK CAR & MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Red Lick'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 Red Lick.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Red Lick
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Red Lick
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Red Lick, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 363 sites within ~10 miles of Red Lick. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Red Lick
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 Red Lick average
Your land is one point inside Red Lick
Everything above resolves to Red Lick as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bowie County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 Red Lick Average
Red Lick Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Red Lick
- ●One soil character for all of Red Lick
- ●Frost dates read at Red Lick's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Red Lick's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Red Lick
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Red Lick, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Red Lick averages can't show:
We read public map data around Red Lick — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Red Lick average
How we know this about Red Lick
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 Bowie County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 Red Lick
When does frost risk typically end in Red Lick?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lick typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Red Lick?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Red Lick typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Red Lick?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Red Lick sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Red Lick?
The federal record around Red Lick runs heavier than most — 510 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (363), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Red Lick?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Red Lick's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Red Lick'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 Red Lick’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Red Lick's own scale — the 1,163 acres it covers and 510 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Red Lick's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 510 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Red Lick, the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Red Lick's boundary and the 1,163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Red Lick's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Red Lick has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bowie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Red Lick's 1,163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bowie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bowie 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 Bowie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Red Lick's 1,163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Red Lick you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 2.2 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 Red Lick-wide figureread your own land →
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