Atascocita, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Atascocita, 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 Atascocita 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 Atascocita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Atascocita — the short answer
Atascocita, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 15K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Harris County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Atascocita's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Atascocita's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Atascocita
Each reading below is measured for Atascocita itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAtascocita runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Harris County, the closest normal to Atascocita) — 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
MeasuredAtascocita 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 Atascocita is in
Atascocita sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Atascocita's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Harris County is mostly Western Gulf Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Atascocita
Every plant below cleared Atascocita's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Atascocita?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 17 — 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.
Documented around Atascocita
Survey cells within 31 miles of Atascocita checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 465 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Atascocita
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Atascocita. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HANDI STOP 111Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #7309Brownfields · 1100 ft
- TIME EXPRESS 2Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HUMBLE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WILL CLAYTON SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- KROGER #367-34Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- ANGELS GAS & GROCERY 12Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KROGER FUEL FACILITY 367Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 151PFAS · 1.4 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 132PFAS · 1.4 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 153PFAS · 1.4 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 106PFAS · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Atascocita'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 Atascocita.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Atascocita
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Atascocita
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Atascocita, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Atascocita — PFAS (25 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (63 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Atascocita
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 Atascocita average
Your land is one point inside Atascocita
Everything above resolves to Atascocita as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 15K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Harris 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 Atascocita Average
Atascocita Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Atascocita
- ●One soil character for all of Atascocita
- ●Frost dates read at Atascocita's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Atascocita's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Atascocita
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Atascocita, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Atascocita averages can't show:
We read public map data around Atascocita — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Atascocita average
How we know this about Atascocita
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 Harris 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 Atascocita
When does frost risk typically end in Atascocita?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Atascocita 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 Atascocita?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Atascocita typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Atascocita?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Atascocita sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 3, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Atascocita?
The federal record around Atascocita runs heavier than most — 825 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (510), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Atascocita?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Atascocita's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Atascocita'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 Atascocita’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Atascocita's own scale — the 15,284 acres it covers and 825 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Atascocita's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 825 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Atascocita, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Atascocita's boundary and the 15,284 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Atascocita sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Atascocita checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Atascocita has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Harris County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Atascocita's 15,284 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harris 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 Harris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Atascocita's 15,284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Atascocita you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 15,284 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Atascocita-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasAtascocita sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.