McDade, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McDade, 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 McDade 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 McDade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McDade — the short answer
McDade, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Bastrop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Bastrop County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Bastrop 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 Bastrop County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is McDade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McDade's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McDade
Each reading below is measured for McDade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcDade runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Bastrop County, the closest normal to McDade) — 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
MeasuredMcDade 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 McDade is in
McDade sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McDade's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bastrop County.
What Grows in McDade
Every plant below cleared McDade's own zone 9a and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McDade?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around McDade
Survey cells within 31 miles of McDade checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 587 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near McDade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McDade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AT-58-47-707Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- AT-58-47-706Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- AT-58-47-701Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- M-N-J GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AT-58-46-606Nitrate · 1.7 mi
- AT-58-47-704Nitrate · 2.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 3170Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 3170Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- AT-58-46-604Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- AT-58-55-105Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- AT-58-47-402Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- AT-58-47-705Nitrate · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McDade'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 McDade.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of McDade
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McDade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McDade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McDade, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 128 sites within ~10 miles of McDade. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in McDade
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 McDade average
Your land is one point inside McDade
Everything above resolves to McDade as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bastrop 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 McDade Average
McDade Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across McDade
- ●One soil character for all of McDade
- ●Frost dates read at McDade's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McDade's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McDade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McDade, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McDade averages can't show:
We read public map data around McDade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McDade average
How we know this about McDade
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 Bastrop 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 McDade
When does frost risk typically end in McDade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McDade typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in McDade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McDade typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McDade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McDade sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 19, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McDade?
The federal record around McDade is a meaningful one — 187 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (128), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.8 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 McDade?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McDade's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McDade'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 McDade’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at McDade's own scale — the 2,618 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McDade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McDade, the closest Nitrate record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McDade's boundary and the 2,618 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McDade's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around McDade checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McDade has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bastrop County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McDade's 2,618 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bastrop County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bastrop 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 Bastrop County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McDade's 2,618 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McDade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,618 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 McDade-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasMcDade sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides