Bastrop, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Bastrop, 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 Bastrop 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 Bastrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bastrop — the short answer
Bastrop, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Bastrop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Bastrop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Bastrop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Bastrop County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bastrop's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bastrop's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bastrop
Each reading below is measured for Bastrop itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBastrop runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Bastrop County, the closest normal to Bastrop) — 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
MeasuredBastrop 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 Bastrop is in
Bastrop sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bastrop's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bastrop County.
What Grows in Bastrop
Every plant below cleared Bastrop's own zone 9a and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bastrop?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Bastrop
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bastrop checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 592 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bastrop
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bastrop. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ACT TWO MUFFLER SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BASTROP FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- WATER STREET CABINETSUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- ORTS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ALL STARUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- ROBERT C HUNTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- DON A STEWART BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BASTROP 321Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- BASTROP AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CITY OF BASTROPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ALL STOP FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- L & S MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bastrop'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 Bastrop.
Total Sites
229
within ~10 miles of Bastrop
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bastrop
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bastrop
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bastrop, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 104 sites within ~10 miles of Bastrop. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bastrop
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 Bastrop average
Your land is one point inside Bastrop
Everything above resolves to Bastrop as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bastrop 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 Bastrop Average
Bastrop Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bastrop
- ●One soil character for all of Bastrop
- ●Frost dates read at Bastrop's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bastrop's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bastrop
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bastrop, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bastrop averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bastrop — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bastrop average
How we know this about Bastrop
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 Bastrop 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 Bastrop
When does frost risk typically end in Bastrop?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bastrop typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Bastrop?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bastrop typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bastrop?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bastrop sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 19, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bastrop?
The federal record around Bastrop is a meaningful one — 229 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (104), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bastrop?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bastrop's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bastrop'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 Bastrop’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bastrop's own scale — the 5,903 acres it covers and 229 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bastrop's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 229 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bastrop, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bastrop's boundary and the 5,903 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bastrop's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bastrop checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bastrop has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bastrop County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bastrop's 5,903 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bastrop County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bastrop 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 Bastrop County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bastrop's 5,903 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bastrop you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,903 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Bastrop-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBastrop sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides