Yorktown, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Yorktown, 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 Yorktown 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 Yorktown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Yorktown — the short answer
Yorktown, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 307 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- DeWitt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- DeWitt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~307
- DeWitt County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 DeWitt County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Yorktown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Yorktown's 307-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Yorktown
Each reading below is measured for Yorktown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsYorktown runs about 307 days between hard freezes (read from DeWitt County, the closest normal to Yorktown) — 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
MeasuredYorktown 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 Yorktown is in
Yorktown sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Yorktown's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: DeWitt County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Yorktown
Every plant below cleared Yorktown's own zone 9a and its 307-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Yorktown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Yorktown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Yorktown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K 9553Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- WEBER MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- YORKTOWN ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- DEWITT COUNTY PCT 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- THE TEXAN 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- YORKTOWN MACHINE & IMPLEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- YORKTOWN CONOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HANDE LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- YORKTOWN GARAGE & BODY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- THE TEXAN 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- A & C ONE STOP 2Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Yorktown'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 Yorktown.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Yorktown
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Yorktown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Yorktown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Yorktown, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Yorktown. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Yorktown
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 Yorktown average
Your land is one point inside Yorktown
Everything above resolves to Yorktown as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from DeWitt 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 Yorktown Average
Yorktown Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Yorktown
- ●One soil character for all of Yorktown
- ●Frost dates read at Yorktown's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Yorktown's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Yorktown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Yorktown, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Yorktown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Yorktown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Yorktown average
How we know this about Yorktown
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 DeWitt 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 Yorktown
When does frost risk typically end in Yorktown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Yorktown typically lands around Feb 4, 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 Feb 25.
When is the first frost in Yorktown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Yorktown typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 307 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Yorktown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Yorktown sees about 307 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 24, about 272 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Yorktown?
The federal record around Yorktown is light — 32 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Yorktown?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Yorktown's scale — its 9a band and its 307-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Yorktown'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 Yorktown’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Yorktown's own scale — the 1,106 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Yorktown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Yorktown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Yorktown's boundary and the 1,106 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~307-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Yorktown sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Yorktown has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom DeWitt County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Yorktown's 1,106 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeWitt County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeWitt 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 DeWitt County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Yorktown's 1,106 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Yorktown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,106 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Yorktown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasYorktown sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.