Alamo Beach, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Alamo Beach, 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 Alamo Beach 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 Alamo Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Alamo Beach — the short answer
Alamo Beach, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 484 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 484 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 Calhoun County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Alamo Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alamo Beach's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alamo Beach
Each reading below is measured for Alamo Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlamo Beach runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Calhoun County, the closest normal to Alamo Beach) — 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
MeasuredAlamo Beach 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 Alamo Beach is in
Alamo Beach sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Alamo Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Alamo Beach
Every plant below cleared Alamo Beach's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alamo Beach?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 28 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Alamo Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alamo Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GULFMARK ENERGY INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
- KING FISHER MARINE SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- TRANSPORTATION DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- GBRA CALHOUN COUNTY RURAL WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 4.2 mi
- CITY OF PORT LAVACAPFAS · 4.2 mi
- QUICK STOP FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CALHOUN COUNTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- CALHOUN COUNTY SHERIFF DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- WEAVERS 2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- EMERSONS TACKLE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- SAMMONS GULF SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- AUSTIN STREET EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alamo Beach'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 Alamo Beach.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alamo Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alamo Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alamo Beach, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 106 sites within ~10 miles of Alamo Beach. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alamo Beach
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 Alamo Beach average
Your land is one point inside Alamo Beach
Everything above resolves to Alamo Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 484 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calhoun 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 Alamo Beach Average
Alamo Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Alamo Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Alamo Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Alamo Beach's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alamo Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alamo Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alamo Beach, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alamo Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alamo Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alamo Beach average
How we know this about Alamo Beach
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 Calhoun 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 Alamo Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Alamo Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo Beach typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Alamo Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alamo Beach 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 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alamo Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alamo Beach sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 4, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alamo Beach?
The federal record around Alamo Beach is a meaningful one — 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (106), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 3.7 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 Alamo Beach?
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 Alamo Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alamo Beach'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 Alamo Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alamo Beach's own scale — the 484 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alamo Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alamo Beach, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 3.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alamo Beach's boundary and the 484 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alamo Beach's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alamo Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calhoun County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alamo Beach's 484 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alamo Beach's 484 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alamo Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 484 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 3.7 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 Alamo Beach-wide figureread your own land →
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