Pawnee, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pawnee, 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 Pawnee 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 Pawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pawnee — the short answer
Pawnee, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Bee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Bee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Bee 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 Bee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pawnee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pawnee's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pawnee
Each reading below is measured for Pawnee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPawnee runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Bee County, the closest normal to Pawnee) — 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
MeasuredPawnee 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 Pawnee is in
Pawnee sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pawnee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bee County.
What Grows in Pawnee
Plants matched to Pawnee's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Pawnee?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Pawnee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pawnee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AW-78-24-901Nitrate · 800 ft
- EL OSO WSCPFAS · 1.0 mi
- AW-78-24-904Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Pawnee MineMining · 2.5 mi
- AW-78-32-303Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- PAWNEE PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- AW-79-17-401Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- AW-79-17-802Nitrate · 4.1 mi
- AW-79-25-103Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- NUSTAR ENERGY PAWNEE STATIONBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- MOVAC ENVIRONMENTAL INCBrownfields · 6.3 mi
- AW-79-17-501Nitrate · 6.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pawnee'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 Pawnee.
Total Sites
46
within ~10 miles of Pawnee
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pawnee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pawnee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pawnee, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Pawnee. 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 Pawnee
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 Pawnee average
Your land is one point inside Pawnee
Everything above resolves to Pawnee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bee 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 Pawnee Average
Pawnee Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pawnee
- ●One soil character for all of Pawnee
- ●Frost dates read at Pawnee's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pawnee's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pawnee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pawnee, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pawnee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pawnee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pawnee average
How we know this about Pawnee
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 Bee 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 Pawnee
When does frost risk typically end in Pawnee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Pawnee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pawnee typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pawnee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pawnee sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pawnee?
The federal record around Pawnee shows 46 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles 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 Pawnee?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pawnee's scale — its 9a band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pawnee'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 Pawnee’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Pawnee's own scale — the 3,359 acres it covers and 46 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pawnee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 46 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pawnee, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pawnee's boundary and the 3,359 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Pawnee's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pawnee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pawnee's 3,359 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bee County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bee 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 Bee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pawnee's 3,359 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pawnee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,359 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Pawnee-wide figureread your own land →
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