Southlake, 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.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Southlake, 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 Southlake 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 Southlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Southlake — the short answer
Southlake, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 14K 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 Tarrant County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Southlake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Southlake's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Southlake
Each reading below is measured for Southlake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSouthlake runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Tarrant County, the closest normal to Southlake) — 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
MeasuredSouthlake 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 Southlake is in
Southlake sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Southlake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tarrant County.
What Grows in Southlake
Every plant below cleared Southlake's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Southlake?
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 Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Southlake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Southlake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF SOUTHLAKEPFAS · 0 ft
- MAGIC MIKES 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SILVER CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- RAS 65787Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CARRIES DANCE PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 27239Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PAYLESS TOWN MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF SOUTHLAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SOUTHLAKE FEED & TACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE 587Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 34556Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KROGER #512-35Brownfields · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Southlake'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 Southlake.
Total Sites
1,158
within ~10 miles of Southlake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Southlake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Southlake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Southlake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Southlake — PFAS (17 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (741 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Southlake
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 Southlake average
Your land is one point inside Southlake
Everything above resolves to Southlake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 14K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tarrant 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 Southlake Average
Southlake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Southlake
- ●One soil character for all of Southlake
- ●Frost dates read at Southlake's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Southlake's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Southlake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Southlake, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Southlake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Southlake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Southlake average
How we know this about Southlake
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 Tarrant 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 Southlake
When does frost risk typically end in Southlake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Southlake typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Southlake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Southlake typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Southlake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Southlake sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 19, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Southlake?
The federal record around Southlake runs heavier than most — 1,158 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (741), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Southlake?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Southlake's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Southlake'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 Southlake’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Southlake's own scale — the 13,975 acres it covers and 1,158 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Southlake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,158 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Southlake, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Southlake's boundary and the 13,975 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Southlake's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Southlake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tarrant County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Southlake's 13,975 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tarrant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tarrant 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 Tarrant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Southlake's 13,975 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Southlake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,975 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Southlake-wide figureread your own land →
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