Cleveland, 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.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cleveland, 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 Cleveland 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 Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cleveland — the short answer
Cleveland, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 12K 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 Liberty County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cleveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cleveland's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cleveland
Each reading below is measured for Cleveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCleveland runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Liberty County, the closest normal to Cleveland) — 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
MeasuredCleveland 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 Cleveland is in
Cleveland sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cleveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Liberty County.
What Grows in Cleveland
Every plant below cleared Cleveland's own zone 9a and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cleveland?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Cleveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cleveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AKIN CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CHARTER FOOD STORE 8023Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- STOP-N-GO 1038Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- CHEVRON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- CORLEYS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- COMMERCIAL PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- A & M WASHTERIABrownfields · 1100 ft
- GILBERTS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- DIAMOND SHAMROCK 201 S WASHINGTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- MUNDENS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- MCWATERS TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SUNMART 480Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cleveland'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 Cleveland.
Total Sites
136
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cleveland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cleveland — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (85 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cleveland
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 Cleveland average
Your land is one point inside Cleveland
Everything above resolves to Cleveland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Liberty 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 Cleveland Average
Cleveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cleveland
- ●One soil character for all of Cleveland
- ●Frost dates read at Cleveland's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cleveland's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cleveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cleveland, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cleveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cleveland average
How we know this about Cleveland
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 Liberty 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 Cleveland
When does frost risk typically end in Cleveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cleveland typically lands around Jan 27, 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 Feb 17.
When is the first frost in Cleveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cleveland typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cleveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cleveland sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 26, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cleveland?
The federal record around Cleveland shows 136 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Cleveland?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cleveland's scale — its 9a band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cleveland'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 Cleveland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cleveland's own scale — the 12,031 acres it covers and 136 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cleveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 136 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cleveland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cleveland's boundary and the 12,031 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cleveland's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cleveland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Liberty County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cleveland's 12,031 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Liberty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Liberty 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 Liberty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cleveland's 12,031 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cleveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 12,031 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 Cleveland-wide figureread your own land →
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