Alice, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Alice, 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 Alice 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 Alice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alice — the short answer
Alice, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Jim Wells County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Alice's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alice's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alice
Each reading below is measured for Alice itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlice runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Jim Wells County, the closest normal to Alice) — 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
MeasuredAlice 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 Alice is in
Alice sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Alice's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jim Wells County.
What Grows in Alice
Every plant below cleared Alice's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alice?
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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Alice
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alice. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AYCOCK OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 022643Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HEB 223Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DUKE BARRYS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ALICE OUTBOARD SALESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BJ SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ROYS TIRE & AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2145Brownfields · 1900 ft
- E-Z SERVE 122 130122Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- YU MISUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- YAWN MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WAL-MART STORE 791Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alice'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 Alice.
Total Sites
174
within ~10 miles of Alice
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alice
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alice
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alice, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 155 sites within ~10 miles of Alice. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Alice
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 Alice average
Your land is one point inside Alice
Everything above resolves to Alice as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jim Wells 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 Alice Average
Alice Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Alice
- ●One soil character for all of Alice
- ●Frost dates read at Alice's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alice's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alice
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alice, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alice averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alice average
How we know this about Alice
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 Jim Wells 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 Alice
When does frost risk typically end in Alice?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alice typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Alice?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alice typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alice?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alice sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 30, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alice?
The federal record around Alice shows 174 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), 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 Alice?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alice's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alice'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 Alice’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alice's own scale — the 7,675 acres it covers and 174 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alice's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 174 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alice, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alice's boundary and the 7,675 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alice's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alice has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jim Wells County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alice's 7,675 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jim Wells County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jim Wells 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 Jim Wells County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alice's 7,675 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alice you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,675 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 Alice-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides