Sterling City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Sterling City, 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 Sterling City 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 Sterling City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sterling City — the short answer
Sterling City, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 627 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 627 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 Sterling City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sterling City's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sterling City
Each reading below is measured for Sterling City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSterling City runs about 242 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSterling City 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 Sterling City is in
Sterling City sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sterling City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sterling County.
What Grows in Sterling City
Every plant below cleared Sterling City's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sterling City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Sterling City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sterling City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WRANGLER FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STERLING COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WYN-LORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STERLING CITY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10673Brownfields · 1800 ft
- STAR STOP FOOD MART 6Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- REGAL KEYLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- STERLING CTY TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TRES AMIGOS CONVENIENCE STORE 7Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- STRIPES 144Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STERLING GAS PROCESSING PLANTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- TXDOT STERLING CITY FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sterling City'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 Sterling City.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sterling City
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •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 Sterling City
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 Sterling City average
Your land is one point inside Sterling City
Everything above resolves to Sterling City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 627 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 Sterling City Average
Sterling City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sterling City
- ●One soil character for all of Sterling City
- ●Frost dates read at Sterling City's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sterling City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sterling City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sterling City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sterling City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sterling City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sterling City average
How we know this about Sterling City
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 Sterling City’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 Sterling City
When does frost risk typically end in Sterling City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling City typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Sterling City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sterling City typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sterling City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sterling City sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 1, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sterling City?
The federal record around Sterling City is light — 19 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Sterling City?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sterling City's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sterling City'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 Sterling City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sterling City's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 627 acres it covers and 19 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sterling City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sterling City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 15 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 19 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sterling City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sterling City's boundary and the 627 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sterling City's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sterling City's 627 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sterling County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sterling 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 Sterling County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sterling City's 627 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sterling City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 627 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 Sterling City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSterling City sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides