New Waverly, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 New Waverly, 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 New Waverly 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 New Waverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Waverly — the short answer
New Waverly, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Walker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Walker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Walker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Walker County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is New Waverly's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Waverly's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Waverly
Each reading below is measured for New Waverly itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Waverly runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Walker County, the closest normal to New Waverly) — 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
MeasuredNew Waverly 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 New Waverly is in
New Waverly sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Waverly's own centroid rather than borrowed from Walker County.
What Grows in New Waverly
Every plant below cleared New Waverly's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Waverly?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (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.
What's on the federal record near New Waverly
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Waverly. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NEW WAVERLY SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- MIDWAY 8Underground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- CORNER STORE 2319Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- NEW WAVERLY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BIG JOHNS WOOD PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- STAR STOP 95Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NEW WAVERLY PLYWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LIQUID MINERALS GROUPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- NEW WAVERLY PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- UFP-NEW WAVERLYToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- TOP NOTCH TRANSPORTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- L.B. FOSTER COMPANY - BALL WINCHToxics Release Inventory · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Waverly'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 New Waverly.
Total Sites
83
within ~10 miles of New Waverly
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Waverly
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Waverly
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Waverly, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of New Waverly. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in New Waverly
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 New Waverly average
Your land is one point inside New Waverly
Everything above resolves to New Waverly as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Walker County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 New Waverly Average
New Waverly Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across New Waverly
- ●One soil character for all of New Waverly
- ●Frost dates read at New Waverly's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Waverly's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Waverly
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Waverly, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Waverly averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Waverly — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Waverly average
How we know this about New Waverly
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Walker 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 New Waverly
When does frost risk typically end in New Waverly?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Waverly typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in New Waverly?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Waverly 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 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Waverly?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Waverly sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 21, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Waverly?
The federal record around New Waverly shows 83 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in New Waverly?
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 New Waverly's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Waverly'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 New Waverly’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Waverly's own scale — the 1,413 acres it covers and 83 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Waverly's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 83 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Waverly, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Waverly's boundary and the 1,413 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Waverly's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Waverly has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Walker County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Waverly's 1,413 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Walker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Walker 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 Walker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Waverly's 1,413 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Waverly you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,413 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 New Waverly-wide figureread your own land →
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