Friendswood, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Friendswood, 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 Friendswood 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 Friendswood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Friendswood — the short answer
Friendswood, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 13K 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
- 13K 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 Friendswood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Friendswood's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Friendswood
Each reading below is measured for Friendswood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFriendswood runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Galveston County, the closest normal to Friendswood) — 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
MeasuredFriendswood 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 Friendswood is in
Friendswood sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Friendswood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Galveston County.
What Grows in Friendswood
Every plant below cleared Friendswood'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 Friendswood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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. 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 Friendswood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Friendswood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF FRIENDSWOODPFAS · 0.5 mi
- HARRIS COUNTY MUD 55 HERITAGE PARKPFAS · 0.5 mi
- CORNER STORE 2322Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HEB 558Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TEXAS NEW MEXICO POWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- EXXON 60568Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHEVRON FAC 161720Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 4941 ICE BOX FRIENDSWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FRIENDSWOOD LAKES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CITY OF FRIENDSWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 7 CIRCLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CITY OF FRIENDSWOOD PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Friendswood'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 Friendswood.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Friendswood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Friendswood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Friendswood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Friendswood — PFAS (17 sites) and Superfund (16 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Friendswood
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 Friendswood average
Your land is one point inside Friendswood
Everything above resolves to Friendswood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 13K 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 Friendswood Average
Friendswood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Friendswood
- ●One soil character for all of Friendswood
- ●Frost dates read at Friendswood's scale: Jan 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Friendswood's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Friendswood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Friendswood, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Friendswood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Friendswood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Friendswood average
How we know this about Friendswood
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 Friendswood
When does frost risk typically end in Friendswood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Friendswood 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 Friendswood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Friendswood 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 Friendswood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Friendswood 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 Friendswood?
The federal record around Friendswood runs heavier than most — 1,091 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (720), the nearest PFAS record about 0.5 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 Friendswood?
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 Friendswood's scale — its 9b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Friendswood'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 Friendswood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Friendswood's own scale — the 13,192 acres it covers and 1,091 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Friendswood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,091 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Friendswood, the closest PFAS record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Friendswood's boundary and the 13,192 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 Friendswood's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Friendswood 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 Friendswood's 13,192 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 Friendswood's 13,192 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Friendswood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,192 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.5 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 Friendswood-wide figureread your own land →
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