Sanctuary, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Sanctuary, 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 Sanctuary 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 Sanctuary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sanctuary — the short answer
Sanctuary, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 548 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 548 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 Sanctuary's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sanctuary's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sanctuary
Each reading below is measured for Sanctuary itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSanctuary runs about 249 days between hard freezes (read from Parker County, the closest normal to Sanctuary) — 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
MeasuredSanctuary 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 Sanctuary is in
Sanctuary sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sanctuary's own centroid rather than borrowed from Parker County.
What Grows in Sanctuary
Every plant below cleared Sanctuary'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 Sanctuary?
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. 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 Sanctuary
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sanctuary. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HALLIES EXPRESS MART 1Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLSUPS 311Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- O M MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MCCLOUDS 4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ADAM FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BEALL CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CITY OF AZLEPFAS · 1.8 mi
- COMMUNITY WSCPFAS · 1.8 mi
- 730 SOUTH KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- LIKA SOUTHWESTToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- QUALITY TRAILER PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PARCEL 43Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sanctuary'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 Sanctuary.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sanctuary
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sanctuary
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sanctuary, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sanctuary — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Sanctuary
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 Sanctuary average
Your land is one point inside Sanctuary
Everything above resolves to Sanctuary as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 548 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Parker County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Sanctuary Average
Sanctuary Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Sanctuary
- ●One soil character for all of Sanctuary
- ●Frost dates read at Sanctuary's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sanctuary's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sanctuary
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sanctuary, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sanctuary averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sanctuary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sanctuary average
How we know this about Sanctuary
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 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 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 Sanctuary
When does frost risk typically end in Sanctuary?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sanctuary 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 Sanctuary?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sanctuary 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 Sanctuary?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sanctuary 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 Sanctuary?
The federal record around Sanctuary is a meaningful one — 146 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Sanctuary?
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 Sanctuary's scale — its 8b band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sanctuary'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 Sanctuary’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sanctuary's own scale — the 548 acres it covers and 146 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sanctuary's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 146 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sanctuary, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sanctuary's boundary and the 548 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 Sanctuary's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sanctuary 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 Sanctuary's 548 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 Sanctuary's 548 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sanctuary you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 548 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Sanctuary-wide figureread your own land →
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