Niederwald, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Niederwald, 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 Niederwald 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 Niederwald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Niederwald — the short answer
Niederwald, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Hays County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Hays County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Niederwald's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Niederwald's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Niederwald
Each reading below is measured for Niederwald itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNiederwald runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Hays County, the closest normal to Niederwald) — 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
MeasuredNiederwald 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 Niederwald is in
Niederwald sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Niederwald's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hays County is mostly Edwards Plateau. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Niederwald
Every plant below cleared Niederwald's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Niederwald?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Niederwald
Survey cells within 31 miles of Niederwald checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 619 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Niederwald
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Niederwald. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STATEWIDE ENVIRONMENTAL LLCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- POCO LOCO SUPERMERCADO 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- F G SPILLMANNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- POCO LOCO SUPERMERCARDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- EASY LANE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CITY OF KYLEPFAS · 2.7 mi
- PLUM CREEKPFAS · 2.7 mi
- SNAX MAX 1Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- RANCHO FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- PARK PLACE FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- FM 2001Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- LR-58-58-7 (E-72 Hays)Nitrate · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Niederwald'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 Niederwald.
Total Sites
281
within ~10 miles of Niederwald
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Niederwald
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Niederwald
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Niederwald, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Niederwald — PFAS (6 sites) and Nitrate (144 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Niederwald
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 Niederwald average
Your land is one point inside Niederwald
Everything above resolves to Niederwald as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hays 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 Niederwald Average
Niederwald Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Niederwald
- ●One soil character for all of Niederwald
- ●Frost dates read at Niederwald's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Niederwald's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Niederwald
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Niederwald, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Niederwald averages can't show:
We read public map data around Niederwald — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Niederwald average
How we know this about Niederwald
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 Hays 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 Niederwald
When does frost risk typically end in Niederwald?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Niederwald typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Niederwald?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Niederwald typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Niederwald?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Niederwald sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Niederwald?
The federal record around Niederwald is a meaningful one — 281 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (144), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.6 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 Niederwald?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Niederwald's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Niederwald'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 Niederwald’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Niederwald's own scale — the 2,347 acres it covers and 281 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Niederwald's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 281 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Niederwald, the closest Brownfields record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Niederwald's boundary and the 2,347 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Niederwald sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Niederwald checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Niederwald has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hays County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Niederwald's 2,347 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hays County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hays 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 Hays County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Niederwald's 2,347 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Niederwald you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,347 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.6 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 Niederwald-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides