Westwood Shores, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Westwood Shores, 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 Westwood Shores 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 Westwood Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Westwood Shores — the short answer
Westwood Shores, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Trinity County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Trinity County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Trinity County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Trinity County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Westwood Shores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Westwood Shores's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Westwood Shores
Each reading below is measured for Westwood Shores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWestwood Shores runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Trinity County, the closest normal to Westwood Shores) — 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
MeasuredWestwood Shores 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 Westwood Shores is in
Westwood Shores sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Westwood Shores's own centroid rather than borrowed from Trinity County.
What Grows in Westwood Shores
Every plant below cleared Westwood Shores's own zone 9a and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Westwood Shores?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Westwood Shores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Westwood Shores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTWOOD SHORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GRACES ONE STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- THE CONSOLIDATED WSC RURAL SYSTEMPFAS · 1.9 mi
- GRACES ONE STOP 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- STEVENSON BEER DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- TRINITY EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TRINITY CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- TRINITY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS 23Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CORNER STORE 1925Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- RAINBOW CLEANERSBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- LAKE COUNTRY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Westwood Shores'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 Westwood Shores.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Westwood Shores
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Westwood Shores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Westwood Shores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Westwood Shores, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 24 sites within ~10 miles of Westwood Shores. 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 Westwood Shores
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 Westwood Shores average
Your land is one point inside Westwood Shores
Everything above resolves to Westwood Shores as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Trinity 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 Westwood Shores Average
Westwood Shores Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Westwood Shores
- ●One soil character for all of Westwood Shores
- ●Frost dates read at Westwood Shores's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Westwood Shores's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Westwood Shores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Westwood Shores, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Westwood Shores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Westwood Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Westwood Shores average
How we know this about Westwood Shores
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 Trinity 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 Westwood Shores
When does frost risk typically end in Westwood Shores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood Shores typically lands around Feb 16, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Westwood Shores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Westwood Shores typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Westwood Shores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Westwood Shores sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Westwood Shores?
The federal record around Westwood Shores shows 32 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (24), 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 Westwood Shores?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Westwood Shores's scale — its 9a band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Westwood Shores'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 Westwood Shores’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Westwood Shores's own scale — the 2,062 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Westwood Shores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Westwood Shores, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Westwood Shores's boundary and the 2,062 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Westwood Shores's own centroid, the South Central PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Westwood Shores has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Trinity County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Westwood Shores's 2,062 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Trinity County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Trinity 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 Trinity County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Westwood Shores's 2,062 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Westwood Shores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,062 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 Westwood Shores-wide figureread your own land →
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