Glidden, 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.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Glidden, 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 Glidden 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 Glidden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glidden — the short answer
Glidden, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 637 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 29
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- Colorado County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 637 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 Colorado County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Glidden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glidden's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glidden
Each reading below is measured for Glidden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGlidden runs about 314 days between hard freezes (read from Colorado County, the closest normal to Glidden) — 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
MeasuredGlidden 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 Glidden is in
Glidden sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glidden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Colorado County is mostly Western Gulf Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Glidden
Every plant below cleared Glidden's own zone 9a and its 314-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glidden?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Glidden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glidden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD-COLUMBUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GREAT SOUTHERN WOOD OF TEXASToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF COLUMBUSPFAS · 1.3 mi
- TEXAS NATIONAL GUARD ARMORYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- OAKS PACKAGE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- TEXAS MANUFACTURED MARBLE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- DIVERSITECHToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- DALEY BROTHERS TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- COLORADO COUNTY OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BROOKSHIRE BROTHERS 34Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HOELSCHER CAR CARE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BILL HAMMOND PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glidden'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 Glidden.
Total Sites
108
within ~10 miles of Glidden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glidden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glidden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glidden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 96 sites within ~10 miles of Glidden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Glidden
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 Glidden average
Your land is one point inside Glidden
Everything above resolves to Glidden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 637 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Colorado 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 Glidden Average
Glidden Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Glidden
- ●One soil character for all of Glidden
- ●Frost dates read at Glidden's scale: Jan 29 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glidden's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glidden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glidden, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glidden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glidden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glidden average
How we know this about Glidden
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 Colorado 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 Glidden
When does frost risk typically end in Glidden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glidden typically lands around Jan 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Glidden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glidden typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 314 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glidden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glidden sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Jan 29 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 19 to Nov 25, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glidden?
The federal record around Glidden shows 108 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Glidden?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glidden's scale — its 9a band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glidden'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 Glidden’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Glidden's own scale — the 637 acres it covers and 108 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glidden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 108 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glidden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glidden's boundary and the 637 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Glidden sits in the East Central Texas Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Glidden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Colorado County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glidden's 637 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colorado County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colorado 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 Colorado County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glidden's 637 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glidden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 637 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Glidden-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasGlidden sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides