Cedar Park, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Cedar Park, 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 Cedar Park 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 Cedar Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cedar Park — the short answer
Cedar Park, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Williamson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Williamson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cedar Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cedar Park's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cedar Park
Each reading below is measured for Cedar Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCedar Park runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Williamson County, the closest normal to Cedar Park) — 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
MeasuredCedar Park 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 Cedar Park is in
Cedar Park sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cedar Park's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Williamson County is mostly Texas Blackland Prairies. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cedar Park
Every plant below cleared Cedar Park's own zone 9a and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cedar Park?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Cedar Park
Survey cells within 31 miles of Cedar Park checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 620 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Cedar Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cedar Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF CEDAR PARKPFAS · 1200 ft
- MISTER CAR WASH-302 BELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- QUICKIE PICKIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 1 COUNTRY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- LUBE PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- DAVIDS ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CHERRY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #4355Brownfields · 2600 ft
- ATX TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- PACKER PETESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BARNES ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cedar Park'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 Cedar Park.
Total Sites
580
within ~10 miles of Cedar Park
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cedar Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cedar Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cedar Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cedar Park — PFAS (13 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (49 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cedar Park
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 Cedar Park average
Your land is one point inside Cedar Park
Everything above resolves to Cedar Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Williamson 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 Cedar Park Average
Cedar Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cedar Park
- ●One soil character for all of Cedar Park
- ●Frost dates read at Cedar Park's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cedar Park's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cedar Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cedar Park, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cedar Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cedar Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cedar Park average
How we know this about Cedar Park
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 Williamson 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 Cedar Park
When does frost risk typically end in Cedar Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Park typically lands around Feb 13, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Cedar Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cedar Park typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cedar Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cedar Park sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 18, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cedar Park?
The federal record around Cedar Park runs heavier than most — 580 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (334), the nearest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cedar Park?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cedar Park's scale — its 9a band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cedar Park'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 Cedar Park’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cedar Park's own scale — the 16,367 acres it covers and 580 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cedar Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 580 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cedar Park, the closest PFAS record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cedar Park's boundary and the 16,367 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cedar Park sits in the Edwards Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Cedar Park checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cedar Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Williamson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cedar Park's 16,367 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Williamson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Williamson 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 Williamson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cedar Park's 16,367 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cedar Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,367 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.2 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 Cedar Park-wide figureread your own land →
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