Matagorda County, in Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Matagorda County lies within the Gulf Coast — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Matagorda County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Matagorda County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Matagorda County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Matagorda County — the short answer
Matagorda County, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 700K acres.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 700K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Matagorda County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Matagorda County's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Matagorda County
Across a year, Matagorda County accumulates about 7,409 growing degree days above 50°F, about 1,585 more than the middle Texas county — ahead of 221 of Texas’s 254 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 91 hours below 45°F, 1,004 fewer than the Texas middle of 1,095. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Matagorda County
Across Matagorda County, the ground is predominantly Vertisols, where Laewest, Dacosta, and Edna are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a clay surface. Topsoil pH runs about 6.3–7.0, neutral. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Vertisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
47%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Matagorda County
The USDA soil survey maps 48% of Matagorda County as moderately well drained — but another 32% drains differently: 15% somewhat poorly drained, 7% very poorly drained.
Laewest is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Dacosta (16%) and Edna (12%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Matagorda County
Each reading below is measured for Matagorda County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Matagorda County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Matagorda County runs about pH 6.3–7.0, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredMatagorda County runs about 322 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMatagorda County 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 Matagorda County is in
Matagorda County sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Matagorda County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Matagorda County's own USDA zone 9b and its own 322-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile.
Is it too late to plant in Matagorda County?
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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 Matagorda County
- monarch butterfly7 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Matagorda County
USGS estimates 192,954 lb of Glyphosate on Matagorda County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (72,478 lb) and Metolachlor-s (60,917 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Matagorda County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Matagorda County — 576 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
There's a meaningful federal record across Matagorda County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Matagorda County
Closest first, across Matagorda County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TA-81-09-401Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- TA-80-16-801Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- SOUTH TEXAS PROJECT ELECTRICBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TA-81-09-802Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- FEHMEL PLANESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- USAF MATAGORDA AEROSTAT SITEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- EQUISTAR CHEMICALS LP MATAGOR DA FACILITYBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- EQUISTAR CHEMICALS LP MATAGOR DA FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- TA-81-09-803Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- TA-80-24-202Nitrate · 4.9 mi
- AJ FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- TA-80-24-201Nitrate · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Matagorda County'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 Matagorda County.
Total Sites
576
across Matagorda County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
12 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Matagorda County
Severity Distribution
across Matagorda County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Matagorda County, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 306 sites across Matagorda County. 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 Matagorda County
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 Matagorda County average
Your land is one point inside Matagorda County
Everything above resolves to Matagorda County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 700K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Matagorda County Average
Matagorda County Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Matagorda County
- ●One soil character for all of Matagorda County
- ●Frost dates read at Matagorda County's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Matagorda County's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Matagorda County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Matagorda County, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Matagorda County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Matagorda County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Matagorda County average
How we know this about Matagorda County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Matagorda County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Matagorda County
When does frost risk typically end in Matagorda County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Matagorda County typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
How long is the growing season in Matagorda County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Matagorda County sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Dec 1, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Matagorda County?
The federal record around Matagorda County is a meaningful one — 576 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (306), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.6 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
Everything above is measured at Matagorda County's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Matagorda County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Texas's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Matagorda County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Matagorda County's own scale — its own ~322-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 576 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Matagorda County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Matagorda County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~322-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Matagorda CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 576 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Matagorda County's boundary and the 699,603 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Matagorda County sitting wholly inside the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Matagorda County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Matagorda County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Texas grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Texas
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Matagorda County — the ~322 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Matagorda County's 699,603 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 576 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Matagorda Countyread your own land →