Pascagoula, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Pascagoula, 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 Pascagoula 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 Pascagoula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pascagoula — the short answer
Pascagoula, Mississippi: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 10K 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
- 10K 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 Pascagoula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pascagoula's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pascagoula
Each reading below is measured for Pascagoula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPascagoula runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Jackson County, the closest normal to Pascagoula) — 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
MeasuredPascagoula 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 Pascagoula is in
Pascagoula sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pascagoula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Pascagoula
Every plant below cleared Pascagoula'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 Pascagoula?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Pascagoula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pascagoula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INGALLS SHIPBUILDINGPFAS · 700 ft
- Pascagoula SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Market Street ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- 059P0124 JACKSONNitrate · 1100 ft
- KNIGHTS MARINE AND INDUTSTRIAL SERVICESBrownfields · 1200 ft
- 059P0123 JACKSONNitrate · 1300 ft
- Maintenance DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CAR CRAFT AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- JOHN BYARSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- Kim's Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Sheriff's DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Disaster ServicesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pascagoula'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 Pascagoula.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pascagoula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pascagoula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pascagoula, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 160 sites within ~10 miles of Pascagoula. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Pascagoula
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 Pascagoula average
Your land is one point inside Pascagoula
Everything above resolves to Pascagoula as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K 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 Pascagoula Average
Pascagoula Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pascagoula
- ●One soil character for all of Pascagoula
- ●Frost dates read at Pascagoula's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pascagoula's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pascagoula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pascagoula, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pascagoula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pascagoula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pascagoula average
How we know this about Pascagoula
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 Pascagoula
When does frost risk typically end in Pascagoula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pascagoula 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 Pascagoula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pascagoula 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 Pascagoula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pascagoula 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 Pascagoula?
The federal record around Pascagoula is a meaningful one — 569 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (198), the nearest PFAS record about 0.1 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 Pascagoula?
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 Pascagoula's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pascagoula'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 Pascagoula’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pascagoula's own scale — the 9,841 acres it covers and 569 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pascagoula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 569 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pascagoula, the closest PFAS record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pascagoula's boundary and the 9,841 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 Pascagoula's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pascagoula 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 Pascagoula's 9,841 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 Pascagoula's 9,841 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pascagoula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,841 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.1 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 Pascagoula-wide figureread your own land →
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