Alvin, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alvin, 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 Alvin 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 Alvin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alvin — the short answer
Alvin, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 15K 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 Brazoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Alvin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alvin's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alvin
Each reading below is measured for Alvin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlvin runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Brazoria County, the closest normal to Alvin) — 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
MeasuredAlvin 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 Alvin is in
Alvin sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Alvin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brazoria County.
What Grows in Alvin
Every plant below cleared Alvin'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 Alvin?
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 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Alvin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alvin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOME DEPOT STORE 6539Brownfields · 750 ft
- NATIONAL TIRE & BATTERY #8762Brownfields · 950 ft
- CHANTIS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- RACEWAY 6932Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ALVIN EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MURPHY USA 6584Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BUC EES 14Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- INPUT/OUTPUT INC - ALVINToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- INPUT OUTPUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HI-LO AUTO SUPPLY 33Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ATLAS OILFIELD SVCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- SUPERIOR ENERGY SERVICES DIVISION 3500Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alvin'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 Alvin.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alvin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alvin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alvin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Alvin — PFAS (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (348 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Alvin
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 Alvin average
Your land is one point inside Alvin
Everything above resolves to Alvin as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brazoria 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 Alvin Average
Alvin Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Alvin
- ●One soil character for all of Alvin
- ●Frost dates read at Alvin's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alvin's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alvin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alvin, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alvin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alvin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alvin average
How we know this about Alvin
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 Brazoria 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 Alvin
When does frost risk typically end in Alvin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alvin 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 Alvin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alvin typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alvin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alvin sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alvin?
The federal record around Alvin is a meaningful one — 529 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (348), the nearest Brownfields 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 Alvin?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alvin's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alvin'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 Alvin’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alvin's own scale — the 14,661 acres it covers and 529 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alvin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 529 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alvin, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alvin's boundary and the 14,661 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 Alvin's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alvin has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brazoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alvin's 14,661 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brazoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brazoria 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 Brazoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alvin's 14,661 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alvin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,661 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Alvin-wide figureread your own land →
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