Boling, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Boling, 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 Boling 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 Boling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Boling — the short answer
Boling, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Wharton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Wharton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Boling's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boling's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boling
Each reading below is measured for Boling itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBoling runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Wharton County, the closest normal to Boling) — 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
MeasuredBoling 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 Boling is in
Boling sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Boling's own centroid rather than borrowed from Wharton County.
What Grows in Boling
Every plant below cleared Boling'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 Boling?
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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Boling
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boling. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STERLINGS VACUUM SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR # 10700Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- FARM & AUTOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BOLING FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BOLING SUPER MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SLR GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOLING ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BOLING SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WHARTON COUNTY FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PLANT 1CAFO · 2.7 mi
- Boling Dome MineMining · 2.8 mi
- WINDSON USABrownfields · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boling'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 Boling.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boling
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boling
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boling, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Boling. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Boling
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 Boling average
Your land is one point inside Boling
Everything above resolves to Boling as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Wharton 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 Boling Average
Boling Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Boling
- ●One soil character for all of Boling
- ●Frost dates read at Boling's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boling's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boling
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boling, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boling averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boling — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boling average
How we know this about Boling
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 Wharton 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 Boling
When does frost risk typically end in Boling?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boling 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 Boling?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boling 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 Boling?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boling 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 Boling?
The federal record around Boling shows 61 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Boling?
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 Boling's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boling'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 Boling’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Boling's own scale — the 2,986 acres it covers and 61 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boling's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 61 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boling, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boling's boundary and the 2,986 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 Boling's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Boling has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Wharton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boling's 2,986 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Wharton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Wharton 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 Wharton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boling's 2,986 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boling you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,986 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Boling-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasBoling sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.