Willow Park, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Willow Park, 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 Willow Park 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 Willow Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Willow Park — the short answer
Willow Park, Texas: USDA zone 8a, about 249 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~249
- Parker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Parker County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Willow Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Willow Park's 249-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Willow Park
Each reading below is measured for Willow Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWillow Park runs about 249 days between hard freezes (read from Parker County, the closest normal to Willow Park) — 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
MeasuredWillow Park 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 Willow Park is in
Willow Park sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Willow Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Parker County.
What Grows in Willow Park
Every plant below cleared Willow Park's own zone 8a and its 249-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Willow Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Willow Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Willow Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SQUAW CREEK GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BROWDER I 20 SHELL NORTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ADRIANS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- DELISIASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BROOKSHIRE FOOD STORE 97Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MR C FOOD STORE 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- GATEWAY SHELL 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DRIVERS TRAVEL MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- C MARTINEZ TAILORS & DRY CLEANERSBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- TEXAS NATIONAL BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TIGER MART 53Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CHIEF AEROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Willow Park'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 Willow Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Willow Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Willow Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Willow Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Willow Park — Toxics Release Inventory (27 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (206 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Willow Park
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 Willow Park average
Your land is one point inside Willow Park
Everything above resolves to Willow Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Parker 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 Willow Park Average
Willow Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Willow Park
- ●One soil character for all of Willow Park
- ●Frost dates read at Willow Park's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Willow Park's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Willow Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Willow Park, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Willow Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Willow Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Willow Park average
How we know this about Willow Park
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 Parker 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 Willow Park
When does frost risk typically end in Willow Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Willow Park typically lands around Mar 12, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Willow Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Willow Park typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 249 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Willow Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Willow Park sees about 249 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 2, about 214 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Willow Park?
The federal record around Willow Park is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (206), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Willow Park?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Willow Park's scale — its 8a band and its 249-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Willow Park'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 Willow Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Willow Park's own scale — the 4,117 acres it covers and 279 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Willow Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 279 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Willow Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Willow Park's boundary and the 4,117 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~249-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Willow Park's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Willow Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Parker County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Willow Park's 4,117 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Parker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Parker 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 Parker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Willow Park's 4,117 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Willow Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,117 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Willow Park-wide figureread your own land →
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