Garwood, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Garwood, 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 Garwood 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 Garwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Garwood — the short answer
Garwood, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Colorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Garwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garwood's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garwood
Each reading below is measured for Garwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGarwood runs about 314 days between hard freezes (read from Colorado County, the closest normal to Garwood) — 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
MeasuredGarwood 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 Garwood is in
Garwood sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Garwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colorado County.
What Grows in Garwood
Every plant below cleared Garwood's own zone 9a and its 314-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garwood?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 29 (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 Garwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LARRYS SUPER SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GRAB N GO 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GARWOOD FARMERS COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AERO AG SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- NADA GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- ARENA PLANTBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- ALTAIR RECYCLING FACILITYBrownfields · 8.0 mi
- TPGS - M&R 40321 40322 ENTERPRISEBrownfields · 8.2 mi
- EAGLE LAKE PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- HANSON CENTRAL AGGREGATES EAGLE LAKEBrownfields · 9.0 mi
- LAKESIDE RIVER PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
- LCRA LAKESIDE WATER DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.3 mi
4 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garwood'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 Garwood.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garwood
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Garwood
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 Garwood average
Your land is one point inside Garwood
Everything above resolves to Garwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Colorado 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 Garwood Average
Garwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Garwood
- ●One soil character for all of Garwood
- ●Frost dates read at Garwood's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garwood's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garwood, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garwood average
How we know this about Garwood
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 Colorado 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 Garwood
When does frost risk typically end in Garwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garwood typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Garwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garwood 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 314 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garwood sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 25, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garwood?
The federal record around Garwood is light — 16 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (11), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Garwood?
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 Garwood's scale — its 9a band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garwood'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 Garwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Garwood's own scale — the 3,475 acres it covers and 16 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 16 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garwood's boundary and the 3,475 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garwood's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Garwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Colorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Garwood's 3,475 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colorado County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colorado 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 Colorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garwood's 3,475 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,475 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 Garwood-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasGarwood sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides