San Angelo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in San Angelo, 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 San Angelo 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 San Angelo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Angelo — the short answer
San Angelo, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 38K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 38K 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 San Angelo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Angelo's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Angelo
Each reading below is measured for San Angelo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSan Angelo runs about 261 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
MeasuredSan Angelo 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 San Angelo is in
San Angelo sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at San Angelo's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tom Green County is mostly Edwards Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in San Angelo
Every plant below cleared San Angelo's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Angelo?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 San Angelo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Angelo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CAIN ELECTRICALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DECOTY COFFEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CAR COUNTRY MAZDAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RANDALL MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 127Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- STRIPES 95Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TEXACO REFINING & MARKETINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CONCHO CAR WASH & LUBE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WEST TEXAS GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- AVIS LUBE 107Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- STRAIN BROSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GENERAL BEVERAGES OF TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Angelo'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 San Angelo.
Total Sites
456
within ~10 miles of San Angelo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Angelo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Angelo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Angelo, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 370 sites within ~10 miles of San Angelo. 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 San Angelo
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 San Angelo average
Your land is one point inside San Angelo
Everything above resolves to San Angelo as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 38K 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 San Angelo Average
San Angelo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across San Angelo
- ●One soil character for all of San Angelo
- ●Frost dates read at San Angelo's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Angelo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Angelo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Angelo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Angelo averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Angelo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Angelo average
How we know this about San Angelo
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 San Angelo’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 San Angelo
When does frost risk typically end in San Angelo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Angelo typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in San Angelo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Angelo typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Angelo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Angelo sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 8, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Angelo?
The federal record around San Angelo is a meaningful one — 456 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (370), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 San Angelo?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Angelo's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Angelo'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 San Angelo’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at San Angelo's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 38,439 acres it covers and 456 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Angelo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- San Angelo's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 22 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 456 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Angelo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Angelo's boundary and the 38,439 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- San Angelo sits in the Central Great 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 San Angelo's 38,439 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tom Green County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tom Green 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 Tom Green County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Angelo's 38,439 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Angelo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 38,439 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 San Angelo-wide figureread your own land →
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