Falls City, 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 Falls City, 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 Falls City 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 Falls City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Falls City — the short answer
Falls City, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 571 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Karnes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Karnes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- Karnes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 571 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 Karnes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Falls City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Falls City's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Falls City
Each reading below is measured for Falls City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFalls City runs about 307 days between hard freezes (read from Karnes County, the closest normal to Falls City) — 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
MeasuredFalls City 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 Falls City is in
Falls City sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Falls City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Karnes County.
What Grows in Falls City
Every plant below cleared Falls City's own zone 9a and its 307-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Falls City?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 Falls City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Falls City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUSY BEAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- FILLIN STATION EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- PZ-78-08-306Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- PZ-79-01-104Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- 629 HOBSON REGULATOR STATIONBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- Panna Maria West MineMining · 5.0 mi
- ZL-68-64-6xxNitrate · 5.0 mi
- PANNA MARIA URANIUM OPERATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- DANNY SULLIVANUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Panna Maria East MineMining · 6.4 mi
- LAWRENCE JANSKYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
- JANYSEK SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Falls City'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 Falls City.
Total Sites
35
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Falls City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Falls City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Falls City — Mining (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Falls City
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 Falls City average
Your land is one point inside Falls City
Everything above resolves to Falls City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 571 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Karnes 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 Falls City Average
Falls City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Falls City
- ●One soil character for all of Falls City
- ●Frost dates read at Falls City's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Falls City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Falls City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Falls City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Falls City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Falls City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Falls City average
How we know this about Falls City
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 Karnes 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 Falls City
When does frost risk typically end in Falls City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Falls City typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Falls City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Falls City typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 307 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Falls City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Falls City sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 25, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Falls City?
The federal record around Falls City shows 35 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (15), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles 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 Falls City?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Falls City's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Falls City'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 Falls City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Falls City's own scale — the 571 acres it covers and 35 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Falls City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 35 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Falls City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Falls City's boundary and the 571 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Falls City's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Falls City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Karnes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Falls City's 571 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Karnes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Karnes 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 Karnes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Falls City's 571 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Falls City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 571 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Falls City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasFalls City sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides