Lost Creek, 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 Lost Creek, 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 Lost Creek 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 Lost Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lost Creek — the short answer
Lost Creek, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Travis County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Travis County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lost Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lost Creek's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lost Creek
Each reading below is measured for Lost Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLost Creek runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Travis County, the closest normal to Lost Creek) — 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
MeasuredLost Creek 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 Lost Creek is in
Lost Creek sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Lost Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Travis County.
What Grows in Lost Creek
Every plant below cleared Lost Creek's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lost Creek?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Lost Creek
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lost Creek checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 623 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lost Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lost Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROB ROY TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ARMORY-CAVESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BROADDUS COUNTY LINE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AUSTIN ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TEXAS RESEARCH INSTITUTE AUSTINBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 36565Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE 2704680Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TEXAS RESEARCH INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- J L MILLER INTERNATIONALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- LOST CREEK MUNICIPLE UTIL DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- AUSTIN FAIRFAX 327 C O XP3294Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- THE PIERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lost Creek'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 Lost Creek.
Total Sites
1,479
within ~10 miles of Lost Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lost Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lost Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lost Creek, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,142 sites within ~10 miles of Lost Creek. 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 Lost Creek
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 Lost Creek average
Your land is one point inside Lost Creek
Everything above resolves to Lost Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Travis 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 Lost Creek Average
Lost Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lost Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Lost Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Lost Creek's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lost Creek's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lost Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lost Creek, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lost Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lost Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lost Creek average
How we know this about Lost Creek
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 Travis 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 Lost Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Lost Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lost Creek typically lands around Feb 9, 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 Mar 2.
When is the first frost in Lost Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lost Creek 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 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lost Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lost Creek sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 21, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lost Creek?
The federal record around Lost Creek is a meaningful one — 1,479 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,142), 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 Lost Creek?
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 Lost Creek's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lost Creek'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 Lost Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lost Creek's own scale — the 1,279 acres it covers and 1,479 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lost Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,479 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lost Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lost Creek's boundary and the 1,279 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lost Creek's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lost Creek checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lost Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Travis County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lost Creek's 1,279 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Travis County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Travis 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 Travis County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lost Creek's 1,279 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lost Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,279 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 Lost Creek-wide figureread your own land →