Reno, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 Reno, 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 Reno 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 Reno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Reno — the short answer
Reno, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Parker County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Reno's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Reno's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Reno
Each reading below is measured for Reno itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsReno runs about 249 days between hard freezes (read from Parker County, the closest normal to Reno) — 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
MeasuredReno 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 Reno is in
Reno sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Reno's own centroid rather than borrowed from Parker County.
What Grows in Reno
Every plant below cleared Reno's own zone 8b and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Reno?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Reno
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Reno. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTER POINT KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- E-Z WAY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SANDY BEACH MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- QUICKWAY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- KNOB HILL KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- J T LUCKY LADYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SANDY BEACH ROAD GROUND WATER PLUMESuperfund · 2.8 mi
- O M MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- AZLE EZ STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HALLIES EXPRESS MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ALLSUPS 311Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ADAM FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Reno'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 Reno.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Reno
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Reno
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Reno, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Reno — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Reno
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 Reno average
Your land is one point inside Reno
Everything above resolves to Reno as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Parker 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 Reno Average
Reno Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Reno
- ●One soil character for all of Reno
- ●Frost dates read at Reno's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Reno's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Reno
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Reno, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Reno averages can't show:
We read public map data around Reno — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Reno average
How we know this about Reno
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 Parker 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 Reno
When does frost risk typically end in Reno?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Reno typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Reno?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Reno typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Reno?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Reno sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 2, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Reno?
The federal record around Reno is a meaningful one — 173 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (109), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Reno?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Reno's scale — its 8b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Reno'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 Reno’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Reno's own scale — the 8,442 acres it covers and 173 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Reno's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 173 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Reno, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Reno's boundary and the 8,442 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Reno's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Reno has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Parker County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Reno's 8,442 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Parker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Parker 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 Parker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Reno's 8,442 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Reno you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,442 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 Reno-wide figureread your own land →
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