Sunset, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Sunset, 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 Sunset 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 Sunset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunset — the short answer
Sunset, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 251 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~251
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Sunset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunset's 251-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunset
Each reading below is measured for Sunset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSunset runs about 251 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
MeasuredSunset 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 Sunset is in
Sunset sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sunset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montague County.
What Grows in Sunset
Every plant below cleared Sunset's own zone 8a and its 251-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sunset?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sunset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNSET GAS & GRILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- ZR-19-34-605Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- PARADISE QUICK STOP 4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- ALL AMERICAN OIL SERVICES INCBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- STICE SAWMILLToxics Release Inventory · 4.4 mi
- ROS ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 6.0 mi
- ZR-19-34-704Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- ZR-19-35-801Nitrate · 6.4 mi
- TR-19-27-404Nitrate · 6.8 mi
- NEW VENTURES LEASINGBrownfields · 6.8 mi
- ALVORD EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- N OUT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunset'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 Sunset.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunset, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 46 sites within ~10 miles of Sunset. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sunset
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 Sunset average
Your land is one point inside Sunset
Everything above resolves to Sunset as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Sunset Average
Sunset Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sunset
- ●One soil character for all of Sunset
- ●Frost dates read at Sunset's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunset's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunset, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunset average
How we know this about Sunset
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 Sunset’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 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 Sunset
When does frost risk typically end in Sunset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Sunset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 251 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sunset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunset sees about 251 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 3, about 216 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sunset?
The federal record around Sunset is a meaningful one — 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (46), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sunset?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sunset's scale — its 8a band and its 251-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunset'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 Sunset’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunset's own scale — its own ~251-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,161 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sunset's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 17 and the ~251-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunset's boundary and the 3,161 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~251-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sunset's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sunset's 3,161 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montague County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montague 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 Montague County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sunset's 3,161 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,161 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Sunset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSunset sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides