A Guide to Texas’ Gardening Zones

While we’re just starting to enjoy our summers, gardeners are turning their minds to fall. Before summer’s end, the first seeds of fall gardens will be planted with the promise of a first harvest around the corner. That makes summer the perfect time for planning.

Texas’ temperate climate affords two growing seasons that differ slightly throughout the state, which is so big that it encompasses five distinct climatic regions. These gardening regions each feature different temperature ranges, soil characteristics, and ideal times for planting. Use this map of Texas’ gardening zones to help you plan what you grow and how you prepare.

Region I: Panhandle

In Texas’ coolest and most extreme region, early winter storms loom over hot Septembers, with the average first frost swooping in before Nov. 1. It’s important to get fall crops in early.

• Soil characteristics: High in clay content, sometimes nitrogen-deficient, but fertile
• Fall temperatures: 32-84 F
• First frost: By Nov. 1

Region II: East Texas Pineywoods, Hill Country, Far West Texas

Topological conditions vary greatly across this large swath of land. Plan for cold weather to set in a little sooner than in most of the state.

• Soil characteristics: Slightly sandy and acidic to east; sand and loam soil mix to west; hardly much soil at all in the Hill Country
• Fall temperatures: 42-86 F
• First frost: Nov. 16

Region III: North and Central Texas

This region covering most of Texas’ urban areas has a slightly longer fall growing season due to a later first frost.

• Soil characteristics: The prevalent alkaline clay soil requires additives such as sphagnum peat, elemental sulfur, and organic mulches to lower the pH.
• Fall temperatures: 45-90 F
• First frost: Dec. 1

Region IV: Gulf Coast and Rio Grande Valley

Where Texas enters the subtropical zone, growing conditions will be affected by proximity to water, while the rich Rio Grande Valley quickly gives way to arid desert.

• Soil characteristics: Heavy black land soil on the coast; deep soil that’s grayish-brown with neutral to alkaline loam in the Valley
• Fall temperatures: 54-94 F
• First frost: Dec. 16

Region V: Lower Rio Grande Valley

In Texas’ warmest gardening zone, you can cultivate plenty of vegetables, herbs, and flowers late into the fall.

• Soil characteristics: Deep, gray-brown, neutral-to-alkaline loam upland; gray silty clay and loam with slight salinity on the coast
• Falltemperatures: 59-91F
• First frost: N/A

Start planning your fall garden now!