Vernon, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Vernon, 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 Vernon 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 Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Vernon — the short answer
Vernon, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Vernon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vernon's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vernon
Each reading below is measured for Vernon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredVernon runs about 252 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredVernon sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Vernon is in
Vernon sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Vernon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wilbarger County.
What Grows in Vernon
Every plant below cleared Vernon's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vernon?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Vernon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vernon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BODLING 1Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- OREILLY AUTO PARTS STORE 845Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NAPA AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- PHILS AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WILBARGER 66 SERV STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ALLSUPS 67Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TCI CABLEVISION OF TEXASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JIM CHRISTANELLI FORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- JERRY WOOD TEXACO 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FDIC PATSYS RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- OSBORNE PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- STEVES HANDYMAN & CONSTRUCTION SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vernon'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 Vernon.
Total Sites
98
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vernon, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 82 sites within ~10 miles of Vernon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Vernon
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 Vernon average
Your land is one point inside Vernon
Everything above resolves to Vernon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K acres. 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 Vernon Average
Vernon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Vernon
- ●One soil character for all of Vernon
- ●Frost dates read at Vernon's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vernon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vernon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vernon, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vernon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vernon average
How we know this about Vernon
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 Vernon’s own record; 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 Vernon
When does frost risk typically end in Vernon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically lands around Mar 13, 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 Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Vernon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vernon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vernon sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 6, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vernon?
The federal record around Vernon shows 98 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Vernon?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vernon's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vernon'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 Vernon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Vernon's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,050 acres it covers and 98 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vernon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Vernon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 20 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 98 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vernon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vernon's boundary and the 5,050 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vernon's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vernon's 5,050 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wilbarger County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wilbarger 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 Wilbarger County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vernon's 5,050 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vernon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,050 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Vernon-wide figureread your own land →
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