West Livingston, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in West Livingston, 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 West Livingston 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 West Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
West Livingston — the short answer
West Livingston, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 15K 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 Polk County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is West Livingston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against West Livingston's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in West Livingston
Each reading below is measured for West Livingston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWest Livingston runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Polk County, the closest normal to West Livingston) — 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
MeasuredWest Livingston 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 West Livingston is in
West Livingston sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at West Livingston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in West Livingston
Every plant below cleared West Livingston's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in West Livingston?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (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.
What's on the federal record near West Livingston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of West Livingston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AIRPORT QUICK STOP STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BEACON BAY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CORNER SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- DAVIS & BROWN CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LAKE LIVINGSTON TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SOUTHERN SPECIALIZEDBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- RBS LAKE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- FORMERLY D & H STOP N SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- PENWAUGH RESORT & MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 41012Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- PO-BOYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- MEMORIAL POINT SUBDIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from West Livingston'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 West Livingston.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of West Livingston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of West Livingston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of West Livingston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around West Livingston, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 89 sites within ~10 miles of West Livingston. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in West Livingston
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 West Livingston average
Your land is one point inside West Livingston
Everything above resolves to West Livingston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Polk County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 West Livingston Average
West Livingston Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across West Livingston
- ●One soil character for all of West Livingston
- ●Frost dates read at West Livingston's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not West Livingston's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in West Livingston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in West Livingston, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that West Livingston averages can't show:
We read public map data around West Livingston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the West Livingston average
How we know this about West Livingston
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 Polk 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 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 West Livingston
When does frost risk typically end in West Livingston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in West Livingston typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in West Livingston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in West Livingston 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 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in West Livingston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, West Livingston sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 21, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in West Livingston?
The federal record around West Livingston shows 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (89), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 West Livingston?
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 West Livingston's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of West Livingston'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 West Livingston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at West Livingston's own scale — the 15,210 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- West Livingston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near West Livingston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- West Livingston's boundary and the 15,210 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at West Livingston's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — West Livingston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Polk County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so West Livingston's 15,210 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among West Livingston's 15,210 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of West Livingston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,210 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 West Livingston-wide figureread your own land →
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