Windthorst, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Windthorst, 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 Windthorst 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 Windthorst — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Windthorst — the short answer
Windthorst, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Windthorst's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Windthorst's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Windthorst
Each reading below is measured for Windthorst itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWindthorst runs about 258 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
MeasuredWindthorst 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 Windthorst is in
Windthorst sits in the Central Great Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Windthorst's own centroid rather than borrowed from Archer County.
What Grows in Windthorst
Every plant below cleared Windthorst's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Windthorst?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Windthorst
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Windthorst. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOES KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- ROEWE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TEX STEIN DAIRYCAFO · 1.0 mi
- THE JOHN VEITENHEIMER DAIRYCAFO · 1.1 mi
- HOFFLAND DAIRYCAFO · 2.0 mi
- WOLF BOTTOM DAIRYCAFO · 4.2 mi
- RAY HOFFMAN JR. DAIRYCAFO · 4.5 mi
- NPPII WINDTHORSTCAFO · 6.0 mi
- WOLF PAK N SAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- 4 WOLF CATTLE 1 DAIRYCAFO · 6.3 mi
- HOEGGER BROTHERS DAIRYCAFO · 6.7 mi
- Judge Kerr ProspectMining · 8.5 mi
Measured from Windthorst'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 Windthorst.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Windthorst
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Windthorst
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Mine waste leaches heavy metals. Test for lead, arsenic and cadmium before growing food here.
Check your specific parcel in Windthorst
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 Windthorst average
Your land is one point inside Windthorst
Everything above resolves to Windthorst as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 Windthorst Average
Windthorst Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Windthorst
- ●One soil character for all of Windthorst
- ●Frost dates read at Windthorst's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Windthorst's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Windthorst
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Windthorst, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Windthorst averages can't show:
We read public map data around Windthorst — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Windthorst average
How we know this about Windthorst
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 Windthorst’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 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 Windthorst
When does frost risk typically end in Windthorst?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Windthorst typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Windthorst?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Windthorst typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Windthorst?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Windthorst sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 7, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Windthorst?
The federal record around Windthorst is light — 12 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly CAFO entries (8), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Windthorst?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Windthorst's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Windthorst'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 Windthorst’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Windthorst's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,603 acres it covers and 12 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Windthorst's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Windthorst's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 21 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 12 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Windthorst, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Windthorst's boundary and the 1,603 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Windthorst's own centroid, the Central Great PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Windthorst's 1,603 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Archer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Archer 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 Archer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Windthorst's 1,603 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Windthorst you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,603 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Windthorst-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasWindthorst sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides