Welch, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Welch, 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 Welch 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 Welch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Welch — the short answer
Welch, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 934 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 934 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 8a is Welch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Welch's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Welch
Each reading below is measured for Welch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWelch runs about 240 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
MeasuredWelch sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Welch is in
Welch sits in the High Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Welch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dawson County.
What Grows in Welch
Every plant below cleared Welch's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Welch?
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 Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Welch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Welch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TST PARAFFIN INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- XY-24-64-7x1Nitrate · 5.3 mi
Measured from Welch'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 Welch.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Welch
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Welch
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 Welch average
Your land is one point inside Welch
Everything above resolves to Welch as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 934 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 Welch Average
Welch Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Welch
- ●One soil character for all of Welch
- ●Frost dates read at Welch's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Welch's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Welch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Welch, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Welch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Welch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Welch average
How we know this about Welch
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 Welch’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 Welch
When does frost risk typically end in Welch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Welch typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Welch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Welch typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Welch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Welch sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 1, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Welch?
The federal record around Welch is light — 3 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (2), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Welch?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Welch's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Welch'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 Welch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Welch's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 934 acres it covers and 3 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Welch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Welch's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 15 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 3 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Welch, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Welch's boundary and the 934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Welch's own centroid, the High PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Welch's 934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dawson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dawson 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 Dawson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Welch's 934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Welch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Welch-wide figureread your own land →