Goliad, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goliad, 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 Goliad 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 Goliad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Goliad — the short answer
Goliad, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 31
- Goliad County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Goliad County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Goliad County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Goliad County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Goliad's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goliad's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goliad
Each reading below is measured for Goliad itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGoliad runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Goliad County, the closest normal to Goliad) — 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
MeasuredGoliad 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 Goliad is in
Goliad sits in the East Central Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goliad's own centroid rather than borrowed from Goliad County.
What Grows in Goliad
Every plant below cleared Goliad'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 Goliad?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Goliad
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goliad. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KP-79-21-605Nitrate · 650 ft
- B G WELLS & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- DAVID J YOUNGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MARKET STREET STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40807Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- JIFFY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GOLIAD ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE 2706975Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HAROLD JOES DIAMOND SHAMROCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CIRCLE K 2704053Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VON DOHLEN MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SOUTH TEXAS AUTOMOTIVE RESTORATIONBrownfields · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goliad'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 Goliad.
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goliad
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goliad, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 36 sites within ~10 miles of Goliad. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Goliad
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 Goliad average
Your land is one point inside Goliad
Everything above resolves to Goliad as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Goliad 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 Goliad Average
Goliad Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Goliad
- ●One soil character for all of Goliad
- ●Frost dates read at Goliad's scale: Jan 31 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goliad's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goliad
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goliad, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goliad averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goliad — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goliad average
How we know this about Goliad
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 Goliad 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 Goliad
When does frost risk typically end in Goliad?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goliad 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 Goliad?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goliad 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 Goliad?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goliad 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 Goliad?
The federal record around Goliad is light — 43 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Goliad?
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 Goliad's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goliad'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 Goliad’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Goliad's own scale — the 1,002 acres it covers and 43 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goliad's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 43 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goliad, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goliad's boundary and the 1,002 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 Goliad's own centroid, the East Central Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Goliad has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Goliad County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goliad's 1,002 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Goliad County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Goliad 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 Goliad County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goliad's 1,002 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goliad you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,002 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Goliad-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasGoliad sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides