The Colony, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 The Colony, 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 The Colony 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 The Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Colony — the short answer
The Colony, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Denton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Denton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is The Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Colony's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Colony
Each reading below is measured for The Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThe Colony runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Denton County, the closest normal to The Colony) — 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
MeasuredThe Colony sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 The Colony is in
The Colony sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at The Colony's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Denton County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in The Colony
Every plant below cleared The Colony's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Colony?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 The Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1 LIFT STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 24274Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CORNER STORE 2375Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- 7 ELEVEN 26271Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- KROGER #879-35Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- WAL-MART NO 426Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- THE COLONY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- THE COLONY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- 370 CENTRAL OFFICE FRISCO COLONY T36642Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DRY CLEAN SUPER CENTERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF THE COLONYPFAS · 1.0 mi
- UAC OF GARLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Colony'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 The Colony.
Total Sites
1,047
within ~10 miles of The Colony
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Colony — Toxics Release Inventory (77 sites) and PFAS (10 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in The Colony
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 Colony average
Your land is one point inside The Colony
Everything above resolves to The Colony as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Denton 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 The Colony Average
The Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across The Colony
- ●One soil character for all of The Colony
- ●Frost dates read at The Colony's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Colony's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Colony, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colony average
How we know this about The Colony
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 Denton 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 The Colony
When does frost risk typically end in The Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Colony typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in The Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Colony typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Colony sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 15, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Colony?
The federal record around The Colony runs heavier than most — 1,047 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (690), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 The Colony?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Colony's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Colony'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 The Colony’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at The Colony's own scale — the 8,964 acres it covers and 1,047 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,047 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Colony, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Colony's boundary and the 8,964 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The Colony sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — The Colony has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Denton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Colony's 8,964 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Denton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Denton 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 Denton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Colony's 8,964 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,964 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 The Colony-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasThe Colony sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides