Waka, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Waka, 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 Waka 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 Waka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Waka — the short answer
Waka, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 84 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 84 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 7a is Waka's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waka's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waka
Each reading below is measured for Waka itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaka runs about 207 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWaka sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Waka is in
Waka sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Waka's own centroid rather than borrowed from Ochiltree County.
What Grows in Waka
Every plant below cleared Waka's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waka?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Waka
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waka. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARM 312CAFO · 4.4 mi
- PAUL FARMS SITE 2CAFO · 4.4 mi
- FARNSWORTH CRUDE OIL PUMP STATIONBrownfields · 4.8 mi
- IMOS COUNTRY STORE 4Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- PAUL FARMS SITE 1CAFO · 6.4 mi
- HANSEN FARMINGCAFO · 7.8 mi
- FARM 51CAFO · 8.3 mi
- UD-04-49-502Nitrate · 8.8 mi
- MC CATTLECAFO · 8.9 mi
- DUKE ENERGY FIELD SERV ICES LPBrownfields · 9.3 mi
- UD-04-41-3xx (OC-4196)Nitrate · 9.4 mi
- CITY WAREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.6 mi
3 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waka'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 Waka.
Total Sites
17
within ~10 miles of Waka
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
6 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waka
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waka
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Waka
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 Waka average
Your land is one point inside Waka
Everything above resolves to Waka as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 84 acres. 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 Waka Average
Waka Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Waka
- ●One soil character for all of Waka
- ●Frost dates read at Waka's scale: Apr 8 to Nov 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waka's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waka
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waka, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waka averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waka — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waka average
How we know this about Waka
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 Waka’s own record; 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 Waka
When does frost risk typically end in Waka?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waka typically lands around Apr 8, 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 Apr 29.
When is the first frost in Waka?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waka typically arrives around Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 18, so the watching starts about Oct 2 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waka?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waka sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 8 through Nov 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 29 to Oct 18, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waka?
The federal record around Waka is light — 17 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly CAFO entries (6), the nearest CAFO record about 4.4 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Waka?
From about Oct 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 Nov 1 (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 Nov 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waka's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waka'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 Waka’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waka's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 84 acres it covers and 17 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waka's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waka's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 8 and Nov 1 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 17 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waka, the closest CAFO record about 4.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waka's boundary and the 84 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Waka's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waka's 84 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Ochiltree County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Ochiltree 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 Ochiltree County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waka's 84 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waka you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 84 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 4.4 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 Waka-wide figureread your own land →
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