Washburn, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Washburn, 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 Washburn 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 Washburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Washburn — the short answer
Washburn, Texas: USDA zone 7a, about 218 days between hard freezes, across 616 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 1
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~218
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 616 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 Washburn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Washburn's 218-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Washburn
Each reading below is measured for Washburn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWashburn runs about 218 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
MeasuredWashburn 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 Washburn is in
Washburn sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Washburn's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Armstrong County is mostly Southwestern Tablelands. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Washburn
Every plant below cleared Washburn's own zone 7a and its 218-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Washburn?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 1 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 5 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Washburn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Washburn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTEXAS RUBBER COMPANY INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- RK TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- FAST STOP 25Underground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- AOK CAMPER PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
- AMARILLO CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- APPALACHIAN RAILCAR SERVICESToxics Release Inventory · 7.3 mi
- APPALACHIAN RAILCAR SERVICESBrownfields · 7.3 mi
- BEEF PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- EXCEL MACHINERY LTDToxics Release Inventory · 7.4 mi
- TYSON FRESH MEATS, INC - AMARILLO, TXBrownfields · 7.4 mi
- TYSON FRESH MEATS, INC - AMARILLO, TXToxics Release Inventory · 7.4 mi
- TYSON FRESH MEATSUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Washburn'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 Washburn.
Total Sites
68
within ~10 miles of Washburn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Washburn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Washburn
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Washburn, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 13 sites within ~10 miles of Washburn. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Washburn
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 Washburn average
Your land is one point inside Washburn
Everything above resolves to Washburn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 616 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 Washburn Average
Washburn Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Washburn
- ●One soil character for all of Washburn
- ●Frost dates read at Washburn's scale: Apr 1 to Nov 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Washburn's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Washburn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Washburn, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Washburn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Washburn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Washburn average
How we know this about Washburn
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 Washburn’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 Washburn
When does frost risk typically end in Washburn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Washburn typically lands around Apr 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Washburn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Washburn typically arrives around Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 22, so the watching starts about Oct 6 — about 218 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Washburn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Washburn sees about 218 frost-free days — roughly Apr 1 through Nov 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 22 to Oct 22, about 183 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Washburn?
The federal record around Washburn shows 68 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Washburn?
From about Oct 6 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 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 Nov 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Washburn's scale — its 7a band and its 218-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Washburn'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 Washburn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Washburn's own scale — its own ~218-day season between 28°F freezes, the 616 acres it covers and 68 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Washburn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Washburn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 1 and Nov 5 and the ~218-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 68 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Washburn, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Washburn's boundary and the 616 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~218-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Washburn sits in the High Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Washburn's 616 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Armstrong County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Armstrong 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 Armstrong County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Washburn's 616 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Washburn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 616 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Washburn-wide figureread your own land →