Bolivar Peninsula, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bolivar Peninsula, 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 Bolivar Peninsula 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 Bolivar Peninsula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bolivar Peninsula — the short answer
Bolivar Peninsula, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 27K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 27K 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 Galveston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Bolivar Peninsula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bolivar Peninsula's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bolivar Peninsula
Each reading below is measured for Bolivar Peninsula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBolivar Peninsula runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Galveston County, the closest normal to Bolivar Peninsula) — 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
MeasuredBolivar Peninsula sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Bolivar Peninsula is in
Bolivar Peninsula sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Bolivar Peninsula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Galveston County.
What Grows in Bolivar Peninsula
Every plant below cleared Bolivar Peninsula's own zone 10a and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bolivar Peninsula?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Bolivar Peninsula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bolivar Peninsula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KH-64-36-201Nitrate · 2100 ft
- KH-64-36-202Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- CORNER MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- GCM THE BIG STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- GILCHRIST SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- GULF COAST CONTRACTINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- JULIES CORNER MARKET & DELIUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- SWEDES GROCERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- THE CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #8939Brownfields · 5.8 mi
- TJS GROCERY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- SOUTH SHORE GROCERY 87Underground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bolivar Peninsula'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 Bolivar Peninsula.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bolivar Peninsula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bolivar Peninsula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bolivar Peninsula, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Bolivar Peninsula. 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 Bolivar Peninsula
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 Bolivar Peninsula average
Your land is one point inside Bolivar Peninsula
Everything above resolves to Bolivar Peninsula as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 27K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Galveston 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 Bolivar Peninsula Average
Bolivar Peninsula Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Bolivar Peninsula
- ●One soil character for all of Bolivar Peninsula
- ●Frost dates read at Bolivar Peninsula's scale: Jan 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bolivar Peninsula's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bolivar Peninsula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bolivar Peninsula, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bolivar Peninsula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bolivar Peninsula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bolivar Peninsula average
How we know this about Bolivar Peninsula
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 Galveston 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 Bolivar Peninsula
When does frost risk typically end in Bolivar Peninsula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bolivar Peninsula typically lands around Jan 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Bolivar Peninsula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bolivar Peninsula typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bolivar Peninsula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bolivar Peninsula sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Nov 13, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bolivar Peninsula?
The federal record around Bolivar Peninsula is light — 26 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Bolivar Peninsula?
From about Oct 28 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 Nov 27 (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 Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bolivar Peninsula's scale — its 10a band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bolivar Peninsula'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 Bolivar Peninsula’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bolivar Peninsula's own scale — the 27,185 acres it covers and 26 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bolivar Peninsula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 26 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bolivar Peninsula, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bolivar Peninsula's boundary and the 27,185 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bolivar Peninsula's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bolivar Peninsula has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Galveston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bolivar Peninsula's 27,185 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Galveston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Galveston 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 Galveston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bolivar Peninsula's 27,185 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bolivar Peninsula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 27,185 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Bolivar Peninsula-wide figureread your own land →
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