Lake Dunlap, 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 Lake Dunlap, 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 Lake Dunlap 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 Lake Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lake Dunlap — the short answer
Lake Dunlap, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 302 days between hard freezes, across 960 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~302
- Guadalupe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 960 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 Guadalupe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lake Dunlap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Dunlap's 302-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Dunlap
Each reading below is measured for Lake Dunlap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Dunlap runs about 302 days between hard freezes (read from Guadalupe County, the closest normal to Lake Dunlap) — 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
MeasuredLake Dunlap 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 Lake Dunlap is in
Lake Dunlap sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lake Dunlap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Guadalupe County.
What Grows in Lake Dunlap
Every plant below cleared Lake Dunlap's own zone 9a and its 302-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Dunlap?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 5 — 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 Lake Dunlap
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lake Dunlap checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 640 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lake Dunlap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Dunlap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CORNER STORE 2009Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PIT STOP FOOD MART 17Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- FOOD BASKET 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40565Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- QUICK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ISELIN PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- HORAN ENTERPRISES INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- NEW BRAUNFELS FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CARLTON FOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- THE PORTER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40566Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CHAMPS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Dunlap'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 Lake Dunlap.
Total Sites
570
within ~10 miles of Lake Dunlap
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Dunlap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Dunlap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lake Dunlap, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lake Dunlap — Toxics Release Inventory (38 sites) and Nitrate (158 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lake Dunlap
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 Lake Dunlap average
Your land is one point inside Lake Dunlap
Everything above resolves to Lake Dunlap as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 960 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Guadalupe 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 Lake Dunlap Average
Lake Dunlap Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lake Dunlap
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Dunlap
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Dunlap's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Dunlap's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Dunlap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Dunlap, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Dunlap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Dunlap average
How we know this about Lake Dunlap
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 Guadalupe 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 Lake Dunlap
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Dunlap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Dunlap 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 Lake Dunlap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Dunlap typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 302 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Dunlap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Dunlap sees about 302 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 21, about 267 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Dunlap?
The federal record around Lake Dunlap is a meaningful one — 570 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (325), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lake Dunlap?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Dunlap's scale — its 9a band and its 302-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Dunlap'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 Lake Dunlap’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Dunlap's own scale — the 960 acres it covers and 570 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Dunlap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 570 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Dunlap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Dunlap's boundary and the 960 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~302-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Dunlap's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lake Dunlap checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Dunlap has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Guadalupe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Dunlap's 960 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Guadalupe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Guadalupe 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 Guadalupe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Dunlap's 960 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Dunlap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 960 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Lake Dunlap-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLake Dunlap sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides