Ames, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ames, 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 Ames 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 Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ames — the short answer
Ames, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Liberty County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Liberty County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Ames's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ames's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ames
Each reading below is measured for Ames itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAmes runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Liberty County, the closest normal to Ames) — 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
MeasuredAmes 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 Ames is in
Ames sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ames's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Liberty County is mostly South Central Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ames
Every plant below cleared Ames's own zone 9b and its 317-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ames?
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 10 — 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 Ames
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ames. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DRAGON PRODUCTS LIBERTY FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- LEETIMS HOME CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SMARTS ARMATURE WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FLINT ENGINEERING & CONSTRUCTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SHAMROCK VACUUM SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- TRIANGLE PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- TEMPORARY CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GREAT GUNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SB-61-59-511Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- HARDIN WSCPFAS · 2.6 mi
- CITY OF LIBERTYPFAS · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ames'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 Ames.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ames
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ames
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ames, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 232 sites within ~10 miles of Ames. 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 Ames
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 Ames average
Your land is one point inside Ames
Everything above resolves to Ames as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Liberty 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 Ames Average
Ames Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ames
- ●One soil character for all of Ames
- ●Frost dates read at Ames's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ames's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ames
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ames, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ames averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ames — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ames average
How we know this about Ames
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 Liberty 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 Ames
When does frost risk typically end in Ames?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ames 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 Ames?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ames typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ames?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ames sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 26, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ames?
The federal record around Ames is a meaningful one — 327 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (232), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 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 Ames?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ames's scale — its 9b band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ames'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 Ames’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ames's own scale — the 2,114 acres it covers and 327 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ames's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 327 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ames, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ames's boundary and the 2,114 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ames sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ames has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Liberty County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ames's 2,114 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Liberty County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Liberty 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 Liberty County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ames's 2,114 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ames you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,114 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.2 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 Ames-wide figureread your own land →
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