Sunset Valley, 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.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sunset Valley, 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 Sunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sunset Valley — the short answer
Sunset Valley, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 893 acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 893 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 Sunset Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sunset Valley's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sunset Valley
Each reading below is measured for Sunset Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSunset Valley runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Travis County, the closest normal to Sunset Valley) — 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
MeasuredSunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley is in
Sunset Valley sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sunset Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Travis County.
What Grows in Sunset Valley
Every plant below cleared Sunset Valley'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 Sunset Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Sunset Valley
Survey cells within 31 miles of Sunset Valley checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 621 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Sunset Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sunset Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YD-58-50-215Nitrate · 1800 ft
- SAEGERT TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- YD-58-50-220Nitrate · 2400 ft
- ABF FREIGHT SYSTEM INCBrownfields · 2600 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE 6570Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- SAMS CLUB 4720Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SAMS CLUB 4720Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- WAL-MART STORES TEXAS LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- WAL-MART STORE 2133Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CIRCLE K 3230Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TEXACO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- YD-58-50-235Nitrate · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sunset Valley'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 Sunset Valley.
Total Sites
1,407
within ~10 miles of Sunset Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sunset Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sunset Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sunset Valley, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 1,062 sites within ~10 miles of Sunset Valley. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Sunset Valley
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 Sunset Valley average
Your land is one point inside Sunset Valley
Everything above resolves to Sunset Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 893 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Travis 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 Sunset Valley Average
Sunset Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Sunset Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Sunset Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Sunset Valley's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sunset Valley's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sunset Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sunset Valley, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sunset Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sunset Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sunset Valley average
How we know this about Sunset Valley
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 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 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 Sunset Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Sunset Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley?
The federal record around Sunset Valley is a meaningful one — 1,407 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,062), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Sunset Valley?
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 Sunset Valley's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sunset Valley'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 Sunset Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sunset Valley's own scale — the 893 acres it covers and 1,407 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sunset Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,407 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sunset Valley, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sunset Valley's boundary and the 893 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 Sunset Valley's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Sunset Valley checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sunset Valley 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 Sunset Valley's 893 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 Sunset Valley's 893 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sunset Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 893 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Sunset Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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