Austin, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Austin, 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 Austin 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 Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Austin — the short answer
Austin, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 209K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 209K 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 Travis County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Austin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Austin's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Austin
Each reading below is measured for Austin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAustin runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Travis County, the closest normal to Austin) — 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
MeasuredAustin sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Austin is in
Austin sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Austin's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Travis County is mostly Edwards Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Austin
Every plant below cleared Austin's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Austin?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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.
Documented around Austin
Survey cells within 31 miles of Austin checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 617 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Austin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Austin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLOWER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- WEED-CORLEY FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CIRCLE K 3245Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRAM STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- RANDALL'S STORE #2481Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- SETON SHOAL CREEK HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- DON LLOYDS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WINDSOR SAVINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ASCENSION SETON SHOAL CREEKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOGANS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36656Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CASIS VILLAGE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Austin'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 Austin.
Total Sites
1,860
within ~10 miles of Austin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Austin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Austin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Austin, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,358 sites within ~10 miles of Austin. 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 Austin
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 Austin average
Your land is one point inside Austin
Everything above resolves to Austin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 209K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Travis 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 Austin Average
Austin Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Austin
- ●One soil character for all of Austin
- ●Frost dates read at Austin's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Austin's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Austin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Austin, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Austin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Austin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Austin average
How we know this about Austin
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 Travis 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 Austin
When does frost risk typically end in Austin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Austin typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Austin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Austin typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Austin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Austin sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 21, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Austin?
The federal record around Austin is a meaningful one — 1,860 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,358), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Austin?
From about Nov 5 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 Dec 5 (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 Dec 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Austin's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Austin'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 Austin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Austin's own scale — the 208,887 acres it covers and 1,860 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Austin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,860 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Austin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Austin's boundary and the 208,887 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Austin sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Austin checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Austin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Travis County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Austin's 208,887 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Travis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Travis 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 Travis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Austin's 208,887 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Austin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 208,887 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Austin-wide figureread your own land →
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