Tolar, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Tolar, 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 Tolar 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 Tolar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tolar — the short answer
Tolar, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 273 days between hard freezes, across 707 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Hood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Hood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~273
- Hood County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 707 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 Hood County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Tolar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tolar's 273-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tolar
Each reading below is measured for Tolar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTolar runs about 273 days between hard freezes (read from Hood County, the closest normal to Tolar) — 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
MeasuredTolar 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 Tolar is in
Tolar sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tolar's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hood County.
What Grows in Tolar
Every plant below cleared Tolar's own zone 8b and its 273-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tolar?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 25 — 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 Tolar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tolar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JANIE MORRIS TIRE REPAIRBrownfields · 400 ft
- KGTC STORAGE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- TOMMYS 35Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MEYERS KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TOLAR SAW MILL TREATED WOOD FIRESuperfund · 0.7 mi
- NORTHERN DISTRICT HQTRSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HEB 631Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- HOOD COUNTY CENTRAL BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- TOTE A BAGUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- HOBBS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- EVERETT FORD HOOKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- THE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tolar'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 Tolar.
Total Sites
95
within ~10 miles of Tolar
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tolar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tolar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tolar, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 81 sites within ~10 miles of Tolar. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Tolar
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 Tolar average
Your land is one point inside Tolar
Everything above resolves to Tolar as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 707 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hood 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 Tolar Average
Tolar Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Tolar
- ●One soil character for all of Tolar
- ●Frost dates read at Tolar's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tolar's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tolar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tolar, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tolar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tolar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tolar average
How we know this about Tolar
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 Hood 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 Tolar
When does frost risk typically end in Tolar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tolar 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 Tolar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tolar typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 273 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tolar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tolar sees about 273 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 11, about 238 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tolar?
The federal record around Tolar is a meaningful one — 95 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tolar?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tolar's scale — its 8b band and its 273-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tolar'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 Tolar’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tolar's own scale — the 707 acres it covers and 95 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tolar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 95 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tolar, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tolar's boundary and the 707 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~273-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tolar's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tolar has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hood County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tolar's 707 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hood 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 Hood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tolar's 707 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tolar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 707 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Tolar-wide figureread your own land →
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