Terlingua, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Terlingua, 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 Terlingua 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 Terlingua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Terlingua — the short answer
Terlingua, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 285 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~285
- Brewster County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Brewster County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Terlingua's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Terlingua's 285-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Terlingua
Each reading below is measured for Terlingua itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTerlingua runs about 285 days between hard freezes (read from Brewster County, the closest normal to Terlingua) — 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
MeasuredTerlingua 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 Terlingua is in
Terlingua sits in the Chihuahuan Deserts — EPA Level III, inside the wider North American Deserts. That is read at Terlingua's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brewster County.
What Grows in Terlingua
Every plant below cleared Terlingua's own zone 9a and its 285-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Terlingua?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — 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 Terlingua
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Terlingua. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Brown ProspectsMining · 2.4 mi
- Unnamed ProspectMining · 2.6 mi
- Two-Forty-Eight MineMining · 2.7 mi
- Le Roi ProspectMining · 2.8 mi
- Chisos MineMining · 3.1 mi
- CHISOS MINING COMPANYSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- Rainbow MineMining · 3.3 mi
- Coltrin's Camp OccurrenceMining · 4.0 mi
- Study Butte MineMining · 4.1 mi
- STUDY BUTTE MINING COMPANYSuperfund · 4.2 mi
- Star MineMining · 4.5 mi
- Rio Grande Prospect (Sec. 70, Block 341)Mining · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Terlingua'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 Terlingua.
Total Sites
33
within ~10 miles of Terlingua
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Terlingua
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Terlingua
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Terlingua, Mining runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Terlingua. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Terlingua
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 Terlingua average
Your land is one point inside Terlingua
Everything above resolves to Terlingua as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brewster County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Terlingua Average
Terlingua Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Terlingua
- ●One soil character for all of Terlingua
- ●Frost dates read at Terlingua's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Terlingua's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Terlingua
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Terlingua, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Terlingua averages can't show:
We read public map data around Terlingua — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Terlingua average
How we know this about Terlingua
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 Brewster 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 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 Terlingua
When does frost risk typically end in Terlingua?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Terlingua typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Terlingua?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Terlingua typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 285 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Terlingua?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Terlingua sees about 285 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 17, about 250 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Terlingua?
The federal record around Terlingua runs heavier than most — 33 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (29), the nearest Mining record about 2.4 miles 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 Terlingua?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Terlingua's scale — its 9a band and its 285-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Terlingua'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 Terlingua’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Terlingua's own scale — the 7,052 acres it covers and 33 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Terlingua's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 33 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Terlingua, the closest Mining record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Terlingua's boundary and the 7,052 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~285-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Terlingua's own centroid, the Chihuahuan DesertsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Terlingua has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brewster County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Terlingua's 7,052 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brewster County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brewster 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 Brewster County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Terlingua's 7,052 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Terlingua you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,052 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Mining record about 2.4 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 Terlingua-wide figureread your own land →
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