Agua Dulce, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Agua Dulce, 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 Agua Dulce 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 Agua Dulce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Agua Dulce — the short answer
Agua Dulce, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 218 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 218 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 Nueces County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Agua Dulce's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Agua Dulce's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Agua Dulce
Each reading below is measured for Agua Dulce itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAgua Dulce runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Nueces County, the closest normal to Agua Dulce) — 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
MeasuredAgua Dulce sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Agua Dulce is in
Agua Dulce sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Agua Dulce's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nueces County.
What Grows in Agua Dulce
Every plant below cleared Agua Dulce's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Agua Dulce?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Agua Dulce
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JS LUCKY HORSE SHOEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- AGUA DULCE YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LALOS MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- UB-83-09-602Nitrate · 1.0 mi
- COASTAL CHEMICALBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- COASTAL CHEMICALToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- CITY OF AGUA DULCEPFAS · 2.1 mi
- UB-83-09-905Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- TENNESSEE GAS PIPELINE STATION 1Underground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- UB-83-18-111Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- RAMIRO RODRIGUEZBrownfields · 5.4 mi
- NEXTERA ENERGY RESOURCESNET MEXICO PIPELINE - NGPL METER STNBrownfields · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Agua Dulce'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 Agua Dulce.
Total Sites
87
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Agua Dulce, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Agua Dulce. 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.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Agua Dulce
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 Agua Dulce average
Your land is one point inside Agua Dulce
Everything above resolves to Agua Dulce as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 218 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nueces 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 Agua Dulce Average
Agua Dulce Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Agua Dulce
- ●One soil character for all of Agua Dulce
- ●Frost dates read at Agua Dulce's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Agua Dulce's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Agua Dulce
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Agua Dulce, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Agua Dulce averages can't show:
We read public map data around Agua Dulce — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Agua Dulce average
How we know this about Agua Dulce
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 Nueces 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 Agua Dulce
When does frost risk typically end in Agua Dulce?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Agua Dulce typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Agua Dulce?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Agua Dulce typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Agua Dulce?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Agua Dulce sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 4, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Agua Dulce?
The federal record around Agua Dulce shows 87 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Agua Dulce?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Agua Dulce's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Agua Dulce'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 Agua Dulce’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Agua Dulce's own scale — the 218 acres it covers and 87 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Agua Dulce's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 87 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Agua Dulce, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Agua Dulce's boundary and the 218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Agua Dulce's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Agua Dulce has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nueces County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Agua Dulce's 218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nueces County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nueces 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 Nueces County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Agua Dulce's 218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Agua Dulce you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Agua Dulce-wide figureread your own land →