Camp Swift, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Camp Swift, 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 Camp Swift 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 Camp Swift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Camp Swift — the short answer
Camp Swift, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 8K 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 Camp Swift's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Camp Swift's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Camp Swift
Each reading below is measured for Camp Swift itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCamp Swift runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Bastrop County, the closest normal to Camp Swift) — 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
MeasuredCamp Swift 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 Camp Swift is in
Camp Swift sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Camp Swift's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bastrop County.
What Grows in Camp Swift
Every plant below cleared Camp Swift'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 Camp Swift?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Camp Swift
Survey cells within 31 miles of Camp Swift checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 590 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Camp Swift
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Camp Swift. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILBIG GAS STORAGE FIELDBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- AT-58-54-501Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- AT-58-54-506Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- AT-58-54-507Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- FCI BASTROPToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- FCI BASTROPSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- AT-58-54-502Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- AT-58-54-503Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- AT-58-54-513Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AT-58-54-504Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- AT-58-54-512Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- LCRA LAKE BASTROP PARK N SHOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Camp Swift'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 Camp Swift.
Total Sites
248
within ~10 miles of Camp Swift
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Camp Swift
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Camp Swift
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Camp Swift, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 122 sites within ~10 miles of Camp Swift. 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 Camp Swift
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 Camp Swift average
Your land is one point inside Camp Swift
Everything above resolves to Camp Swift as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bastrop County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Camp Swift Average
Camp Swift Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Camp Swift
- ●One soil character for all of Camp Swift
- ●Frost dates read at Camp Swift's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Camp Swift's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Camp Swift
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Camp Swift, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Camp Swift averages can't show:
We read public map data around Camp Swift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Camp Swift average
How we know this about Camp Swift
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 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 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 Camp Swift
When does frost risk typically end in Camp Swift?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Camp Swift 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 Camp Swift?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Camp Swift 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 Camp Swift?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Camp Swift 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 Camp Swift?
The federal record around Camp Swift is a meaningful one — 248 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (122), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Camp Swift?
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 Camp Swift's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Camp Swift'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 Camp Swift’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Camp Swift's own scale — the 7,731 acres it covers and 248 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Camp Swift's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 248 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Camp Swift, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Camp Swift's boundary and the 7,731 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 Camp Swift's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Camp Swift checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Camp Swift 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 Camp Swift's 7,731 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 Camp Swift's 7,731 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Camp Swift you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,731 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Camp Swift-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasCamp Swift sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides