Lackland AFB, 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.
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 Lackland AFB, 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 Lackland AFB 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 Lackland AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lackland AFB — the short answer
Lackland AFB, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- Bexar 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 Bexar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lackland AFB's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lackland AFB's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lackland AFB
Each reading below is measured for Lackland AFB itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLackland AFB runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Bexar County, the closest normal to Lackland AFB) — 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
MeasuredLackland AFB 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 Lackland AFB is in
Lackland AFB sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lackland AFB's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bexar County.
What Grows in Lackland AFB
Every plant below cleared Lackland AFB's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lackland AFB?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Lackland AFB
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lackland AFB checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 674 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lackland AFB
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lackland AFB. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AY-68-36-709Nitrate · 250 ft
- JBSA - LACKLANDPFAS · 1500 ft
- WILFORD HALL AMBULATORY SURGICAL CENTERPFAS · 1500 ft
- AY-68-36-708Nitrate · 0.5 mi
- LACKLAND AFB TRAINING ANNEXBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- AY-68-36-7 (CY-287)Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- FIVE PALMS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASESuperfund · 0.8 mi
- US DOD USAF LACKLAND AFBToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- US DOD USAF LACKLAND AFBBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- US DOD USAF LACKLAND AFB RANGEToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- KENS CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lackland AFB'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 Lackland AFB.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lackland AFB
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lackland AFB
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lackland AFB, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,495 sites within ~10 miles of Lackland AFB. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Lackland AFB
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 Lackland AFB average
Your land is one point inside Lackland AFB
Everything above resolves to Lackland AFB as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bexar 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 Lackland AFB Average
Lackland AFB Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lackland AFB
- ●One soil character for all of Lackland AFB
- ●Frost dates read at Lackland AFB's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lackland AFB's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lackland AFB
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lackland AFB, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lackland AFB averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lackland AFB — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lackland AFB average
How we know this about Lackland AFB
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 Bexar 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 Lackland AFB
When does frost risk typically end in Lackland AFB?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lackland AFB typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Lackland AFB?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lackland AFB 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 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lackland AFB?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lackland AFB sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 25, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lackland AFB?
The federal record around Lackland AFB runs heavier than most — 2,164 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,495), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lackland AFB?
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 Lackland AFB's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lackland AFB'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 Lackland AFB’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lackland AFB's own scale — the 2,710 acres it covers and 2,164 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lackland AFB's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,164 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lackland AFB, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lackland AFB's boundary and the 2,710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lackland AFB's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lackland AFB checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lackland AFB has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bexar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lackland AFB's 2,710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bexar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bexar 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 Bexar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lackland AFB's 2,710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lackland AFB you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,710 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Lackland AFB-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLackland AFB sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides