Wallis, 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 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 Wallis, 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 Wallis 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 Wallis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wallis — the short answer
Wallis, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 957 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 957 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 Austin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Wallis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wallis's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wallis
Each reading below is measured for Wallis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWallis runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Austin County, the closest normal to Wallis) — 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
MeasuredWallis 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 Wallis is in
Wallis sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Wallis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Austin County.
What Grows in Wallis
Every plant below cleared Wallis's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wallis?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Wallis
Survey cells within 31 miles of Wallis checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 520 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wallis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wallis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WALLIS CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- JIMS TEXACO OLD STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- JIMMIES DRIVE-IN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- ELAN 3Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- R J KNESEKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JOE CERVENKAS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WALLIS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- D&M ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- KING CONST MATLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WALLIS CONCRETEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- AP-66-24-802Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- AP-66-24-801Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wallis'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 Wallis.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Wallis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wallis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wallis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wallis, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Wallis. 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 Wallis
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 Wallis average
Your land is one point inside Wallis
Everything above resolves to Wallis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 957 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Austin 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 Wallis Average
Wallis Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Wallis
- ●One soil character for all of Wallis
- ●Frost dates read at Wallis's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wallis's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wallis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wallis, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wallis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wallis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wallis average
How we know this about Wallis
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 Austin 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 Wallis
When does frost risk typically end in Wallis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wallis typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Wallis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wallis 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 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wallis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wallis sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 21, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wallis?
The federal record around Wallis shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), 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 Wallis?
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 Wallis's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wallis'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 Wallis’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wallis's own scale — the 957 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wallis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wallis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wallis's boundary and the 957 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wallis's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Wallis checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wallis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Austin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wallis's 957 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Austin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Austin 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 Austin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wallis's 957 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wallis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 957 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 Wallis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasWallis sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides