Elm Creek, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elm Creek, 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 Elm Creek 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 Elm Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elm Creek — the short answer
Elm Creek, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 31
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Maverick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Elm Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elm Creek's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elm Creek
Each reading below is measured for Elm Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElm Creek runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Maverick County, the closest normal to Elm Creek) — 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
MeasuredElm Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Elm Creek is in
Elm Creek sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Elm Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Maverick County.
What Grows in Elm Creek
Every plant below cleared Elm Creek's own zone 9a and its 313-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elm Creek?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Elm Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elm Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CASINO GROCERY 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MINIT MART 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- SIX PACK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JACINTO ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MINIT MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- MAYELOS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SECO GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40533Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- VALLEY MART 9Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- EAGLE WAREHOUSE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #6549Brownfields · 2.9 mi
- CASINO GROCERY 2Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elm Creek'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 Elm Creek.
Total Sites
89
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elm Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elm Creek, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 71 sites within ~10 miles of Elm Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Elm Creek
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 Elm Creek average
Your land is one point inside Elm Creek
Everything above resolves to Elm Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Maverick 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 Elm Creek Average
Elm Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Elm Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Elm Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Elm Creek's scale: Jan 31 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elm Creek's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elm Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elm Creek, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elm Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elm Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elm Creek average
How we know this about Elm Creek
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 Maverick 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 Elm Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Elm Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Creek typically lands around Jan 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Elm Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elm Creek typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elm Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elm Creek sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 31 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 21 to Nov 26, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elm Creek?
The federal record around Elm Creek is a meaningful one — 89 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elm Creek?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elm Creek's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elm Creek'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 Elm Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elm Creek's own scale — the 1,810 acres it covers and 89 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elm Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 89 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elm Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elm Creek's boundary and the 1,810 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elm Creek's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elm Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Maverick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elm Creek's 1,810 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Maverick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Maverick 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 Maverick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elm Creek's 1,810 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elm Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,810 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Elm Creek-wide figureread your own land →