The Homesteads, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 The Homesteads, 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 Homesteads 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 Homesteads — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Homesteads — the short answer
The Homesteads, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Johnson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Johnson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- Johnson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Johnson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is The Homesteads's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Homesteads's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Homesteads
Each reading below is measured for The Homesteads itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThe Homesteads runs about 283 days between hard freezes (read from Johnson County, the closest normal to The Homesteads) — 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 Homesteads 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 Homesteads is in
The Homesteads sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at The Homesteads's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Johnson County is mostly Cross Timbers. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in The Homesteads
Every plant below cleared The Homesteads's own zone 8b and its 283-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Homesteads?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near The Homesteads
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Homesteads. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUNWEST GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KOUNTRY FOOD STORE 3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LILLIAN FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SUNBELT INDUSTRIAL SERVICESBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- CHARLES SMITHToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- KOUNTRY FOOD STORE 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- PATS C STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- VENUS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SABRE GALVANIZINGBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- SABRE INDUSTRIESToxics Release Inventory · 4.1 mi
- HAPPY HILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- LUCKY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Homesteads'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 Homesteads.
Total Sites
300
within ~10 miles of The Homesteads
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Homesteads
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Homesteads
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Homesteads, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Homesteads — PFAS (7 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (45 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in The Homesteads
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 Homesteads average
Your land is one point inside The Homesteads
Everything above resolves to The Homesteads as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Johnson 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 The Homesteads Average
The Homesteads Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across The Homesteads
- ●One soil character for all of The Homesteads
- ●Frost dates read at The Homesteads's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Homesteads's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Homesteads
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Homesteads, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Homesteads averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Homesteads — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Homesteads average
How we know this about The Homesteads
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 Johnson 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 The Homesteads
When does frost risk typically end in The Homesteads?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Homesteads typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in The Homesteads?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Homesteads typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 283 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Homesteads?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Homesteads sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 16, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Homesteads?
The federal record around The Homesteads is a meaningful one — 300 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (164), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 The Homesteads?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Homesteads's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Homesteads'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 Homesteads’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at The Homesteads's own scale — the 2,445 acres it covers and 300 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Homesteads's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 300 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Homesteads, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Homesteads's boundary and the 2,445 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The Homesteads 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 Homesteads has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Johnson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Homesteads's 2,445 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Johnson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Johnson 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 Johnson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Homesteads's 2,445 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Homesteads you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,445 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 Homesteads-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasThe Homesteads sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.