The Gulf Coast spans USDA hardiness zones 9a-10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The humid, near-frost-free coastal rim of the Gulf of Mexico — long seasons, sandy and alluvial soils, heat, and hurricanes shaping what thrives. (Representative coastal counties, not exhaustive.) These conditions suit okra, black-eyed pea, collard greens, and tomato — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
The Gulf Coast spans Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
Your yard isn't all of the Gulf Coast.
The Gulf Coast spans USDA zones 9a-10a, but your parcel sits in exactly one — and slope, tree cover, and low spots nudge it further. 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 Gulf Coast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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The Gulf Coast — the short answer
The Gulf Coast: USDA zones 9a-10a, 289–365 frost-free days depending where in it you stand, across 5 states.
- USDA zones
- 9a-10a
- USDA PHZM 2023, aggregated over the footprint
- Shortest season here
- 289 days
- NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020 — Okaloosa County
- Counties
- 30
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Region type
- County cluster
- Growable Ground growing-region registry
Region boundary: Growable Ground growing-region registry — curated county clusters, EPA Level III ecoregions, and town clusters drawn finer than any county. The season figure is this region's own record, measured across its 30 member counties, not a state or national average.
Hardiness Zone Range
The Gulf Coast is not one growing season
One answer for the Gulf Coast averages 30 counties whose growing seasons are 76 days apart — from 289 frost-free days in Okaloosa County to 365 in Plaquemines County. That is the same region, measured the same way, in the same years. Which end of it your land sits nearer decides what finishes before the first hard freeze.
The middle half of 30 counties runs 305–326 days, with a median of 321 days — a 76-day span end to end.
Measured across 30 member counties, each carrying its own 28°F normal. NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020. A member with no own record is absent from the range rather than counted as zero — nothing here is interpolated to the region. Your own site sits somewhere inside this range; a parcel report resolves where.
Where the line runs inside the Gulf Coast
The middle half of the Gulf Coast runs 305–326 frost-free days, and 15 of its 30 counties sit outside that — 8 on the short side, 7 on the long. A regional planting date describes the middle well and the ends poorly, which is worth knowing before you follow one.
Under 305 frost-free days
8 counties
- Okaloosa County · 289 days
- Baldwin County · 297 days
- Mobile County · 297 days
3 of 8 shown
The end of the region that sets the planting calendar — start seed indoors here and the season stretches to meet the crop.
305–326 frost-free days
15 counties
0 of 15 shown
The middle half of the region, and the part a single regional season describes well.
Over 326 frost-free days
7 counties
- Plaquemines County · 365 days
- St. Bernard County · 338 days
- Jefferson County · 336 days
3 of 7 shown
Long enough for a second succession of a quick crop after the first comes out.
Each county is placed by its OWN 28°F frost-free normal (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020), the same figure its own guide page publishes. Elevation, slope and cold-air drainage move a site within its county as well — which is the part only your address resolves.
What Grows in the Gulf Coast
All 5 of the plants below that publish a season requirement clear even Okaloosa County’s 289 frost-free days — so on season alone, this grid works at both ends of the region. The 76-day spread still decides how far past this list you can push, and how early you can start.
Plants matched to the Gulf Coast's USDA zones 9a-10a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has across the region — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Native Plants of the Gulf Coast
Plants the USDA PLANTS Database documents as native and present in all 5 states this region crosses, kept only where the published hardiness range meets the Gulf Coast’s USDA zones 9a-10a — closest range match first. Presence is recorded by state, so a plant can be documented across the state and still be scarce in your corner of the region.
The ground across the Gulf Coast
The USDA soil survey maps this ground county by county. These are those records weighted by land area across 30 member counties — this region’s own profile, not a state figure.
The ground is predominantly Ultisols, at 23% of mapped acres, followed by Entisols (21%), Histosols (15%) and Vertisols (15%). Nine soil orders appear somewhere inside the footprint, which is the honest reason a regional soil answer only goes so far. The most extensive named soils are Lakeland, Allemands, and Victoria.
24% of those acres are very poorly drained, and another 14% poorly drained, 13% somewhat poorly drained. Topsoil pH runs 3.6–8.2 between the lowest and the highest county on record. 24% of the footprint is classed prime farmland.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Topsoil pH
3.6–8.2
Hydric soils
49%
Soil changes across a driveway, so which of these your own ground sits on is a parcel question rather than a regional one. Plaquemines County holds the most wetland ground here, at 96% — soil types explained.
USDA NRCS SSURGO via Soil Data Access
What this means for growing in the Gulf Coast
The soil survey reads this ground county by county, and the readings above are those records summed across the Gulf Coast. Here is what they mean for a garden here — and the move an experienced grower makes about each one.
Drainage
From county records24% of the mapped acres across the Gulf Coast are very poorly drained — ground that sheds water slowly. That is area-weighted across all 30 of its mapped counties.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
From county recordsTopsoil across the Gulf Coast runs pH 3.6–8.2 — acidic in 14 of its 30 counties.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across the Gulf Coast — and how to grow with it.
Across the Gulf Coast's 30 counties the federal record holds 28,151 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks (12,780), Brownfields (10,374) and Nitrate (3,382). The heaviest single county is Jefferson County, with 3,229.
That is a regional count, not a reading of any one lot — proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis. Open the map outlined to the Gulf Coast to see which records sit where you actually grow.
Sources Checked
Summed across the 30 counties in the Gulf Coast
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
Your land is one point inside the Gulf Coast
Everything above resolves to the Gulf Coast as a whole — a footprint whose own counties record seasons 76 days apart, and hardiness across zones 9a-10a. Your parcel sits at one point in that range, not in the middle of it. 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 region 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 regional average.
Your Lot vs the Gulf Coast Average
Gulf Coast Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a-10a, averaged across Gulf Coast
- ●One soil character for all of Gulf Coast
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulf Coast's 9a-10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in the Gulf Coast
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in the Gulf Coast — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, contamination, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulf Coast averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Gulf Coast — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulf Coast average
How we know this about the Gulf Coast
The boundary: a cluster of neighboring counties. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one, and every figure on this page was measured over the counties inside it rather than borrowed from the state around it.
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, aggregated across the footprint; the growing season from NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS 1991–2020 28°F normals, read at each member’s own record; boundaries from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination record from the federal sources named in that beat above; the soil from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, read at each member county’s own record and weighted to this footprint by land area. Where a member carries no record of its own, it is absent from the figure rather than filled in.
Common questions about the Gulf Coast
What hardiness zone is the Gulf Coast?
The Gulf Coast spans USDA hardiness zones 9a-10a, aggregated from the USDA Agricultural Research Service Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 across the region's counties. Zones reflect average annual extreme minimum temperatures from 1991–2020 data.
How long is the growing season in the Gulf Coast?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, the Gulf Coast's counties mostly run 305 to 326 frost-free days, median 321 (NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991–2020, over 30 member counties). That 21-day spread is the honest read — no single season describes 30 counties, and each county guide below carries its own.
When does frost risk end in the Gulf Coast?
Across the Gulf Coast, the middle half of member counties see their last 28°F hard freeze between Jan 24 and Feb 5 (median Jan 27), and their first fall freeze between Dec 6 and Dec 17. Those are hard freezes, not the last light frost: tender transplants wait for about Feb 17, and elevation decides which end of a 12-day spread you garden in.
What grows well in the Gulf Coast?
The Gulf Coast's conditions suit plants such as Okra, Black-eyed Pea, Collard Greens, Tomato, Sweet Potato, Jalapeno. What actually thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage — we score each plant against the real conditions at your address.
How is the Gulf Coast defined?
The Gulf Coast is defined here as a curated cluster of 30 neighboring counties that share a growing character. Growing regions have no official boundary, so this footprint is our published one — every county in it is named on this page.
Which states does the Gulf Coast cover?
The Gulf Coast spans Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Each state's full growing guide is linked on this page.
What other growing regions cover the same states?
Appalachia, Piedmont, High Plains, Mississippi Delta, Piney Woods, and Texas High Plains / Panhandle share at least one state with the Gulf Coast. Growing regions overlap and interlock — a single address can sit inside more than one, which is why the precise read is always the parcel, not the region.
What this page reads at the Gulf Coast’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at the Gulf Coast's own scale — the zone 9a-10a band across its footprint, a median 321-day season across its 30 counties and 28,151 documented federal contamination records across its 30 counties, 3,229 of them in Jefferson County alone; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The USDA hardiness band 9a-10a aggregated across all 30 counties in the footprintUSDA PHZM 2023
- The boundary itself — the 30 counties this region is curated fromGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The growing character that makes this region distinct from the states it crossesGrowable Ground subregion registry
- The 28°F season across the footprint — the middle half of its 30 counties run 305 to 326 frost-free days, median 321NOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The federal contamination record over the whole footprint — 28,151 documented federal contamination records across its 30 counties, 3,229 of them in Jefferson County aloneEPA, USGS and USDA federal site records
- The soil order mix across the footprint — 23% Ultisols, topsoil pH 3.6–8.2, area-weighted across its 30 mapped countiesUSDA NRCS SSURGO
Inherited from a wider read
- The candidate plant list — all 5 member states' curated sets, merged and filtered to zones 9a-10afrom Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- Which end of the 21-day range your ground sits at — 305 days at one extreme, 326 at the other, decided mostly by elevationfrost dates explained →
- Which of those soils your own ground sits on — the survey maps them county-wide, and they change across a drivewaysoil types explained →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on one specific lotwhy one lot differs from the next →
Explore the Gulf Coast
State growing guides
Counties in this region
Other growing regions across Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas
The vast eastern mountain region of steep hollows, thin acidic soils, and short upland seasons — apples, brambles, ramps, and forest crops on hard-won ground. (Union of the core Appalachian ecoregions.)
The rolling foothill belt between the Appalachians and the coastal plain, defined by heavy red clay soils that reward amendment and drainage. (Southern Piedmont; the Northern Piedmont is a separate ecoregion.)
A semi-arid shortgrass tableland of deep soils and big sky, where wind, low rainfall, and irrigation shape dryland wheat, sorghum, and resilient gardens.
The flat, deep, dark alluvial bottomland of the lower Mississippi River — extraordinarily fertile cotton, soybean, rice, and sweet-potato ground.
The sandy, acidic pine-and-hardwood forest belt of East Texas and western Louisiana — the humid South Central Plains, where a long frost-free season of roughly nine months favors heat- and acid-tolerant Southern gardens.
The southern, warmer anchor of the High Plains — the Llano Estacado tableland west of the Caprock Escarpment, where a longer season (frost-free days run near 227 across the Texas counties, well above the multi-state High Plains average) and deep-well Ogallala irrigation define the growing reality. This is the largest contiguous cotton patch in the world around Lubbock (Texas Co-op Power), and, west of the Caprock, the Texas High Plains AVA (TTB, 27 CFR 9.144) that grows roughly 80% of the state's wine grapes. High, flat, and semi-arid: what grows here is what deep-well water and a zone 7a-8a season can coax from it, a distinctly Texan story rather than the dryland wheat and sorghum of the northern High Plains.