Bayside, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bayside, 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 Bayside 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 Bayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bayside — the short answer
Bayside, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 317 days between hard freezes, across 650 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Refugio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 11
- Refugio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~317
- Refugio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 650 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 Refugio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Bayside's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bayside's 317-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bayside
Each reading below is measured for Bayside itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBayside runs about 317 days between hard freezes (read from Refugio County, the closest normal to Bayside) — 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
MeasuredBayside 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 Bayside is in
Bayside sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bayside's own centroid rather than borrowed from Refugio County.
What Grows in Bayside
Every plant below cleared Bayside'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 Bayside?
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 11 — 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 Bayside
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bayside. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WH-79-63-104Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WH-79-63-102Nitrate · 2500 ft
- WH-79-63-201Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- AH-79-63-503Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- AH-79-63-401Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- WW-79-62-301Nitrate · 4.4 mi
- AH-79-63-801Nitrate · 5.6 mi
- WW-79-62-904Nitrate · 7.0 mi
- WW-83-07-104Nitrate · 7.4 mi
- WW-79-62-502Nitrate · 7.7 mi
- 363 BONNIEVIEW STATIONBrownfields · 7.9 mi
- AH-79-64-405Nitrate · 8.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bayside'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 Bayside.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bayside
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bayside
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bayside, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Bayside. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Bayside
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 Bayside average
Your land is one point inside Bayside
Everything above resolves to Bayside as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 650 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Refugio 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 Bayside Average
Bayside Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Bayside
- ●One soil character for all of Bayside
- ●Frost dates read at Bayside's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bayside's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bayside
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bayside, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bayside averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bayside — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bayside average
How we know this about Bayside
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 Refugio 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 Bayside
When does frost risk typically end in Bayside?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bayside 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 Bayside?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bayside typically arrives around Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 27, so the watching starts about Nov 11 — about 317 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bayside?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bayside sees about 317 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Nov 27, about 282 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bayside?
The federal record around Bayside is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bayside?
From about Nov 11 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bayside's scale — its 9b band and its 317-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bayside'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 Bayside’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bayside's own scale — the 650 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bayside's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bayside, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bayside's boundary and the 650 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~317-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bayside's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bayside has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Refugio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bayside's 650 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Refugio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Refugio 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 Refugio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bayside's 650 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bayside you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 650 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 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 Bayside-wide figureread your own land →
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