Ocean Springs, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Ocean Springs, 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 Ocean Springs 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 Ocean Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ocean Springs — the short answer
Ocean Springs, Mississippi: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- 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
- City area
- 7K 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 Ocean Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ocean Springs's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ocean Springs
Each reading below is measured for Ocean Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOcean Springs runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Jackson County, the closest normal to Ocean Springs) — 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
MeasuredOcean Springs 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 Ocean Springs is in
Ocean Springs sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ocean Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Ocean Springs
Every plant below cleared Ocean Springs'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 Ocean Springs?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 Ocean Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ocean Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C W ParkerUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Broome's #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- GULF ISLANDS NATIONAL SEASHOREBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Fox's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALGREENS #18039Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Cedar Point CampusUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 059N0074 JACKSONNitrate · 0.8 mi
- Fast Mart # 26Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- OCEAN SPRINGS HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Keith's # 95Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Gulf Islands National SeashoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Ocean Springs School Bus BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ocean Springs'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 Ocean Springs.
Total Sites
569
within ~10 miles of Ocean Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ocean Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ocean Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ocean Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ocean Springs — Nitrate (172 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Ocean Springs
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 Ocean Springs average
Your land is one point inside Ocean Springs
Everything above resolves to Ocean Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jackson 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 Ocean Springs Average
Ocean Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Ocean Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Ocean Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Ocean Springs's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ocean Springs's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ocean Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ocean Springs, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ocean Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ocean Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ocean Springs average
How we know this about Ocean Springs
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 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 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 Ocean Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Ocean Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Springs 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 Ocean Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ocean Springs 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 Ocean Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ocean Springs 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 Ocean Springs?
The federal record around Ocean Springs is a meaningful one — 569 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (218), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ocean Springs?
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 Ocean Springs's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ocean Springs'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 Ocean Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ocean Springs's own scale — the 7,392 acres it covers and 569 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ocean Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 569 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ocean Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ocean Springs's boundary and the 7,392 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 Ocean Springs's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ocean Springs 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 Ocean Springs's 7,392 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 Ocean Springs's 7,392 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ocean Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,392 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Ocean Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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