Valley Mills, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Valley Mills, 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 Valley Mills 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 Valley Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Mills — the short answer
Valley Mills, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 778 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 778 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 Bosque County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Valley Mills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Mills's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Mills
Each reading below is measured for Valley Mills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsValley Mills runs about 276 days between hard freezes (read from Bosque County, the closest normal to Valley Mills) — 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
MeasuredValley Mills 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 Valley Mills is in
Valley Mills sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Valley Mills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bosque County.
What Grows in Valley Mills
Every plant below cleared Valley Mills's own zone 8b and its 276-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Mills?
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 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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Valley Mills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Mills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JEBSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GAS KAMPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- EKRUB OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- EAGLES FAST MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CEFCO 67Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BACKROADS FOOD & FUELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- MOVIES CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BRUNE PUMP COMPANYBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- CORYELL CITY WATER SUPPLY DISTRICTPFAS · 2.0 mi
- CLIFTON READY MIXToxics Release Inventory · 6.7 mi
- CHEMICAL LIMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.6 mi
- LHOIST NORTH AMERICA CLIFTON LIME PLANT CONSTRUCTION PROJECTToxics Release Inventory · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Mills'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 Valley Mills.
Total Sites
18
within ~10 miles of Valley Mills
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Mills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Mills
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Valley Mills
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 Valley Mills average
Your land is one point inside Valley Mills
Everything above resolves to Valley Mills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 778 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bosque 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 Valley Mills Average
Valley Mills Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Valley Mills
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Mills
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Mills's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Mills's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Mills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Mills, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Mills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Mills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Mills average
How we know this about Valley Mills
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 Bosque 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 Valley Mills
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Mills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Mills 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 Valley Mills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Mills 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 276 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Mills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Mills sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 12, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Mills?
The federal record around Valley Mills shows 18 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (12), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Valley Mills?
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 Valley Mills's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Mills'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 Valley Mills’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Valley Mills's own scale — the 778 acres it covers and 18 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Mills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 18 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Mills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Mills's boundary and the 778 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Mills's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Valley Mills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bosque County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Mills's 778 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bosque County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bosque 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 Bosque County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Mills's 778 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Mills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 778 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Valley Mills-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasValley Mills sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides