Gulf Hills, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gulf Hills, 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 Gulf Hills 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 Gulf Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gulf Hills — the short answer
Gulf Hills, Mississippi: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Jackson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Jackson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Jackson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Jackson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gulf Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulf Hills's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulf Hills
Each reading below is measured for Gulf Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGulf Hills runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Jackson County, the closest normal to Gulf Hills) — 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
MeasuredGulf Hills 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 Gulf Hills is in
Gulf Hills sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gulf Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Gulf Hills
Every plant below cleared Gulf Hills's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gulf Hills?
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 6 — 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 Gulf Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulf Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 059N0279 JACKSONNitrate · 0.6 mi
- Bst Ocean Springs Co 77127Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Circle K #282Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- H AND C AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- Chevron #46023Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Circle K # 2723384Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VILLAGE CLEANERSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SPRING PLAZA SHOPPING CENTERBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- WINN DIXIE STORE #1478Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- GOODYEAR AUTO SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5739Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- Polk's DrugUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulf Hills'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 Gulf Hills.
Total Sites
591
within ~10 miles of Gulf Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulf Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulf Hills
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gulf Hills, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gulf Hills — Nitrate (168 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Gulf Hills
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 Gulf Hills average
Your land is one point inside Gulf Hills
Everything above resolves to Gulf Hills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jackson 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 Gulf Hills Average
Gulf Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gulf Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Gulf Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Gulf Hills's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulf Hills's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulf Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulf Hills, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulf Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulf Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulf Hills average
How we know this about Gulf Hills
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 Jackson 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 Gulf Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Gulf Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf Hills 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 Gulf Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf Hills typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gulf Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gulf Hills sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 22, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulf Hills?
The federal record around Gulf Hills is a meaningful one — 591 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (233), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Gulf Hills?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gulf Hills's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gulf Hills'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 Gulf Hills’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gulf Hills's own scale — the 4,950 acres it covers and 591 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulf Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 591 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulf Hills, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulf Hills's boundary and the 4,950 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gulf Hills's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gulf Hills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jackson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gulf Hills's 4,950 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulf Hills's 4,950 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulf Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,950 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Gulf Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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