Cienegas Terrace, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Cienegas Terrace, 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 Cienegas Terrace 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 Cienegas Terrace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cienegas Terrace — the short answer
Cienegas Terrace, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Val Verde County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Val Verde County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cienegas Terrace's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cienegas Terrace's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cienegas Terrace
Each reading below is measured for Cienegas Terrace itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCienegas Terrace runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Val Verde County, the closest normal to Cienegas Terrace) — 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
MeasuredCienegas Terrace 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 Cienegas Terrace is in
Cienegas Terrace sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Cienegas Terrace's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Val Verde County is mostly Chihuahuan Deserts. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Cienegas Terrace
Every plant below cleared Cienegas Terrace's own zone 9a and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cienegas Terrace?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Cienegas Terrace
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cienegas Terrace. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAS VEGAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOWMET ALUMINUM CASTING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.0 mi
- REMTEX MFG INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WATERTOWN SOLESBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WATERTOWN SOLESToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FEDEX FREIGHT DRTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- HOWMET ALUMINUM CASTINGSBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- US BORDER PATROL AIR OPSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SAN ANTONIO SHOE VAL VERDE COUNTYToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- CON-WAY FREIGHT INC - LDEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- STEPHEN H FERNANDEZUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cienegas Terrace'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 Cienegas Terrace.
Total Sites
151
within ~10 miles of Cienegas Terrace
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cienegas Terrace
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cienegas Terrace
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cienegas Terrace, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cienegas Terrace — Underground Storage Tanks (112 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Cienegas Terrace
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 Cienegas Terrace average
Your land is one point inside Cienegas Terrace
Everything above resolves to Cienegas Terrace as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Val Verde 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 Cienegas Terrace Average
Cienegas Terrace Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cienegas Terrace
- ●One soil character for all of Cienegas Terrace
- ●Frost dates read at Cienegas Terrace's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cienegas Terrace's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cienegas Terrace
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cienegas Terrace, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cienegas Terrace averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cienegas Terrace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cienegas Terrace average
How we know this about Cienegas Terrace
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 Val Verde 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 Cienegas Terrace
When does frost risk typically end in Cienegas Terrace?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cienegas Terrace typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Cienegas Terrace?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cienegas Terrace typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cienegas Terrace?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cienegas Terrace sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cienegas Terrace?
The federal record around Cienegas Terrace is a meaningful one — 151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Cienegas Terrace?
From about Oct 30 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 Nov 29 (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 Nov 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cienegas Terrace's scale — its 9a band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cienegas Terrace'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 Cienegas Terrace’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cienegas Terrace's own scale — the 2,044 acres it covers and 151 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cienegas Terrace's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 151 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cienegas Terrace, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cienegas Terrace's boundary and the 2,044 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Cienegas Terrace sits in the Southern Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cienegas Terrace has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Val Verde County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cienegas Terrace's 2,044 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Val Verde County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Val Verde 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 Val Verde County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cienegas Terrace's 2,044 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cienegas Terrace you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,044 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Cienegas Terrace-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasCienegas Terrace sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides