Fairchilds, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Fairchilds, 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 Fairchilds 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 Fairchilds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairchilds — the short answer
Fairchilds, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Fort Bend County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fairchilds's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairchilds's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairchilds
Each reading below is measured for Fairchilds itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFairchilds runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Fairchilds) — 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
MeasuredFairchilds 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 Fairchilds is in
Fairchilds sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Fairchilds's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Fairchilds
Every plant below cleared Fairchilds's own zone 9b and its 319-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairchilds?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Fairchilds
Survey cells within 31 miles of Fairchilds checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 504 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Fairchilds
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairchilds. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONSOLIDATED COMMUNICATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- RAINOSEKS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- NICKS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CONSTANT VECERA DBA VECERA GROCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JY-65-34-604Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- JY-65-34-810Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- JY-65-34-903Nitrate · 2.5 mi
- CITY OF NEEDVILLEPFAS · 3.0 mi
- DIAMOND MARKET 2Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- VILLAGE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- JY-65-34-809Nitrate · 3.9 mi
- JY-65-34-402Nitrate · 4.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairchilds'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 Fairchilds.
Total Sites
311
within ~10 miles of Fairchilds
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairchilds
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairchilds
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fairchilds, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fairchilds — PFAS (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (213 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Fairchilds
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 Fairchilds average
Your land is one point inside Fairchilds
Everything above resolves to Fairchilds as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fort Bend 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 Fairchilds Average
Fairchilds Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fairchilds
- ●One soil character for all of Fairchilds
- ●Frost dates read at Fairchilds's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairchilds's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairchilds
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairchilds, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairchilds averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairchilds — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairchilds average
How we know this about Fairchilds
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 Fort Bend 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 Fairchilds
When does frost risk typically end in Fairchilds?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairchilds 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.
When is the first frost in Fairchilds?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairchilds typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairchilds?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairchilds sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairchilds?
The federal record around Fairchilds is a meaningful one — 311 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (213), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Fairchilds?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairchilds's scale — its 9b band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairchilds'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 Fairchilds’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Fairchilds's own scale — the 1,372 acres it covers and 311 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairchilds's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 311 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairchilds, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairchilds's boundary and the 1,372 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~319-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairchilds's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Fairchilds checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fairchilds has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fort Bend County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairchilds's 1,372 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fort Bend County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fort Bend 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 Fort Bend County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairchilds's 1,372 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairchilds you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,372 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 Fairchilds-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasFairchilds sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.