Walnut Springs, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Walnut Springs, 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 Walnut Springs 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 Walnut Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Walnut Springs — the short answer
Walnut Springs, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 276 days between hard freezes, across 852 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 23
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~276
- Bosque County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 852 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 Bosque County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Walnut Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walnut Springs's 276-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Walnut Springs
Each reading below is measured for Walnut Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWalnut Springs runs about 276 days between hard freezes (read from Bosque County, the closest normal to Walnut Springs) — 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
MeasuredWalnut Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Walnut Springs is in
Walnut Springs sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Walnut Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bosque County.
What Grows in Walnut Springs
Every plant below cleared Walnut Springs's own zone 8b and its 276-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Walnut Springs?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Walnut Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Walnut Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PACK & SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- COWBOY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FLAT TOP RANCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- SUNMART 491Underground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- ORFIELD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- MORGAN ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.8 mi
- MORGAN ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.9 mi
Measured from Walnut Springs'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 Walnut Springs.
Total Sites
7
within ~10 miles of Walnut Springs
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
7 underground storage tanks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Walnut Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
Check your specific parcel in Walnut Springs
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 Walnut Springs average
Your land is one point inside Walnut Springs
Everything above resolves to Walnut Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 852 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bosque 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 Walnut Springs Average
Walnut Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Walnut Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Walnut Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Walnut Springs's scale: Feb 23 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walnut Springs's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Walnut Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walnut Springs, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walnut Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walnut Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walnut Springs average
How we know this about Walnut Springs
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 Bosque 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 Walnut Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Walnut Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walnut Springs typically lands around Feb 23, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Walnut Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Walnut Springs typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 276 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Walnut Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walnut Springs sees about 276 frost-free days — roughly Feb 23 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 16 to Nov 12, about 241 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walnut Springs?
The federal record around Walnut Springs is light — 7 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (7), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Walnut Springs?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Walnut Springs's scale — its 8b band and its 276-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walnut Springs'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 Walnut Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Walnut Springs's own scale — the 852 acres it covers and 7 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walnut Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 7 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Walnut Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Walnut Springs's boundary and the 852 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~276-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Walnut Springs's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Walnut Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bosque County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Walnut Springs's 852 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bosque County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bosque 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 Bosque County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Walnut Springs's 852 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Walnut Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 852 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 Walnut Springs-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasWalnut Springs sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.