Spofford, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Spofford, 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 Spofford 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 Spofford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spofford — the short answer
Spofford, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 154 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Kinney County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Kinney County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Kinney County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 154 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 Kinney County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Spofford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spofford's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spofford
Each reading below is measured for Spofford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSpofford runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Kinney County, the closest normal to Spofford) — 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
MeasuredSpofford sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Spofford is in
Spofford sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spofford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kinney County.
What Grows in Spofford
Every plant below cleared Spofford's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spofford?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Spofford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spofford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RP-70-46-401Nitrate · 8.7 mi
- RIO GRANDE ELECTRIC COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40525Underground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- STOP N SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- RP-70-45-504Nitrate · 9.4 mi
- BRACKETT ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
- TEXAS RECYCLINGBrownfields · 9.6 mi
- RP-70-45-601Nitrate · 9.9 mi
Measured from Spofford'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 Spofford.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spofford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spofford
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Spofford
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 Spofford average
Your land is one point inside Spofford
Everything above resolves to Spofford as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 154 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kinney 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 Spofford Average
Spofford Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Spofford
- ●One soil character for all of Spofford
- ●Frost dates read at Spofford's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spofford's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spofford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spofford, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spofford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spofford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spofford average
How we know this about Spofford
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 Kinney 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 Spofford
When does frost risk typically end in Spofford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spofford typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Spofford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spofford typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spofford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spofford sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 22, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spofford?
The federal record around Spofford is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (6), the nearest Nitrate record about 8.7 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Spofford?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spofford's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spofford'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 Spofford’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Spofford's own scale — the 154 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spofford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spofford, the closest Nitrate record about 8.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spofford's boundary and the 154 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spofford's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Spofford has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kinney County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spofford's 154 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kinney County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kinney 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 Kinney County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spofford's 154 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spofford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 154 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 8.7 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 Spofford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSpofford sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides