Clear Lake Shores, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Clear Lake Shores, 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 Clear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Clear Lake Shores — the short answer
Clear Lake Shores, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 278 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- 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
- City area
- 278 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 9b is Clear Lake Shores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clear Lake Shores's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clear Lake Shores
Each reading below is measured for Clear Lake Shores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClear Lake Shores runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Galveston County, the closest normal to Clear Lake Shores) — 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
MeasuredClear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores is in
Clear Lake Shores sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Clear Lake Shores's own centroid rather than borrowed from Galveston County.
What Grows in Clear Lake Shores
Every plant below cleared Clear Lake Shores's own zone 9b and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clear Lake Shores?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 Clear Lake Shores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clear Lake Shores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANGELS GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- STOP MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- MARSH MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HOME DEPOT STORE 6560Brownfields · 2200 ft
- GALVESTON COUNTY WCID 12PFAS · 2300 ft
- WATERFORD HARBOR YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TARGET STORE T1377Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- L L M FUEL DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARINA BAY HARBOR YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KEMAH FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SEABROOK SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HANDI PLUS 35Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clear Lake Shores'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 Clear Lake Shores.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clear Lake Shores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clear Lake Shores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clear Lake Shores, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clear Lake Shores — Toxics Release Inventory (120 sites) and PFAS (14 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Clear Lake Shores
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 Clear Lake Shores average
Your land is one point inside Clear Lake Shores
Everything above resolves to Clear Lake Shores as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 278 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Galveston 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 Clear Lake Shores Average
Clear Lake Shores Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Clear Lake Shores
- ●One soil character for all of Clear Lake Shores
- ●Frost dates read at Clear Lake Shores's scale: Jan 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clear Lake Shores's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clear Lake Shores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clear Lake Shores, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clear Lake Shores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clear Lake Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clear Lake Shores average
How we know this about Clear Lake Shores
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 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 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 Clear Lake Shores
When does frost risk typically end in Clear Lake Shores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores?
The federal record around Clear Lake Shores runs heavier than most — 945 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (495), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Clear Lake Shores?
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 Clear Lake Shores's scale — its 9b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clear Lake Shores'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 Clear Lake Shores’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Clear Lake Shores's own scale — the 278 acres it covers and 945 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clear Lake Shores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 945 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clear Lake Shores, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clear Lake Shores's boundary and the 278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clear Lake Shores's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clear Lake Shores 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 Clear Lake Shores's 278 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 Clear Lake Shores's 278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clear Lake Shores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 278 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clear Lake Shores-wide figureread your own land →
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