Stratford, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, lavender, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Stratford, 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 Stratford 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 Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Stratford — the short answer
Stratford, Texas: USDA zone 6b, about 198 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 6b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~198
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 6b is Stratford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Stratford's 198-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Stratford
Each reading below is measured for Stratford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredStratford runs about 198 days between hard freezes — a moderate growing season.
There is room for the full run of cool-season crops plus a warm-season main crop, but the calendar is tight enough that a late spring or early fall frost still decides how much finishes.
Time warm-season transplants to your last hard freeze, and a few weeks of season extension turns a near-miss harvest into a sure one.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredStratford sits in USDA hardiness zone 6b.
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 Stratford is in
Stratford sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Stratford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sherman County.
What Grows in Stratford
Every plant below cleared Stratford's own zone 6b and its 198-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Stratford?
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 Mar 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Late in the year the fall bench takes over — quick greens, radishes, and garlic that repays you next summer.
What's on the federal record near Stratford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Stratford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STRATFORD CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- THE TEXAS MAIDBrownfields · 650 ft
- CITY OF STRATFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- XD-02-48-210Nitrate · 1800 ft
- XD-02-48-503Nitrate · 1900 ft
- BAIN TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STRATFORD GRAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CONSUMERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TOOT N TOTUM 105Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- ALLSUPS 361Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ALLSUPS 52Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- G & W INDUSTRIAL SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Stratford'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 Stratford.
Total Sites
34
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Stratford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Stratford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Stratford — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (14 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Stratford
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 Stratford average
Your land is one point inside Stratford
Everything above resolves to Stratford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Stratford Average
Stratford Average
- ●USDA Zones 6b, averaged across Stratford
- ●One soil character for all of Stratford
- ●Frost dates read at Stratford's scale: Apr 12 to Oct 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Stratford's 6b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Stratford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Stratford, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Stratford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Stratford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Stratford average
How we know this about Stratford
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 Stratford’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 Stratford
When does frost risk typically end in Stratford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford typically lands around Apr 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 May 3.
When is the first frost in Stratford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Stratford typically arrives around Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 13, so the watching starts about Sep 27 — about 198 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Stratford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Stratford sees about 198 frost-free days — roughly Apr 12 through Oct 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer May 3 to Oct 13, about 163 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Stratford?
The federal record around Stratford is light — 34 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Stratford?
From about Sep 27 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 Oct 27 (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 Oct 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Stratford's scale — its 6b band and its 198-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Stratford'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 Stratford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Stratford's own scale — its own ~198-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,477 acres it covers and 34 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Stratford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 6bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Stratford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 12 and Oct 27 and the ~198-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 34 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Stratford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Stratford's boundary and the 1,477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 6b and a ~198-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Stratford's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Stratford's 1,477 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sherman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sherman 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 Sherman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Stratford's 1,477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Stratford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Stratford-wide figureread your own land →