Tira, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tira, 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 Tira 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 Tira — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tira — the short answer
Tira, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 908 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Hopkins County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Hopkins County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Hopkins County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 908 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 Hopkins County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Tira's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tira's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tira
Each reading below is measured for Tira itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTira runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Hopkins County, the closest normal to Tira) — 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
MeasuredTira 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 Tira is in
Tira sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tira's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hopkins County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Tira
Every plant below cleared Tira's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tira?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Tira
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tira. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST END DAIRYCAFO · 2.0 mi
- PIONEER OILCO 25Underground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- FREEMANS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- THE HUB GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- MURRAYS BAR-B-QUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- NU WAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
- SLIM WATERS SHAMROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- STEVE FISHERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.2 mi
- DELTA SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
- SCHOOL BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
- FRIENDS TIRE & MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.4 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tira'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 Tira.
Total Sites
15
within ~10 miles of Tira
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tira
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Tira
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 Tira average
Your land is one point inside Tira
Everything above resolves to Tira as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 908 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hopkins 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 Tira Average
Tira Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tira
- ●One soil character for all of Tira
- ●Frost dates read at Tira's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tira's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tira
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tira, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tira averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tira — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tira average
How we know this about Tira
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 Hopkins 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 Tira
When does frost risk typically end in Tira?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tira typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Tira?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tira typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tira?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tira sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 12, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tira?
The federal record around Tira is light — 15 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (14), the nearest CAFO record about 2.0 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 Tira?
From about Oct 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 Nov 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tira's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tira'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 Tira’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tira's own scale — the 908 acres it covers and 15 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tira's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 15 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tira, the closest CAFO record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tira's boundary and the 908 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Tira 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 — Tira has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hopkins County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tira's 908 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hopkins County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hopkins 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 Hopkins County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tira's 908 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tira you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 908 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 2.0 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 Tira-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasTira sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides