Hillside Acres, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hillside Acres, 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 Hillside Acres 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 Hillside Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hillside Acres — the short answer
Hillside Acres, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 152 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Webb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 152 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 Webb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Hillside Acres's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hillside Acres's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hillside Acres
Each reading below is measured for Hillside Acres itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHillside Acres runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Webb County, the closest normal to Hillside Acres) — 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
MeasuredHillside Acres 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 Hillside Acres is in
Hillside Acres sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hillside Acres's own centroid rather than borrowed from Webb County.
What Grows in Hillside Acres
Every plant below cleared Hillside Acres's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hillside Acres?
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 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 17 — 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 Hillside Acres
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hillside Acres. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- YZ-85-30-501Nitrate · 9.9 mi
Measured from Hillside Acres'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 Hillside Acres.
Total Sites
2
within ~10 miles of Hillside Acres
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 nitrate monitoring sites
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hillside Acres
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Hillside Acres
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 Hillside Acres average
Your land is one point inside Hillside Acres
Everything above resolves to Hillside Acres as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 152 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Webb 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 Hillside Acres Average
Hillside Acres Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Hillside Acres
- ●One soil character for all of Hillside Acres
- ●Frost dates read at Hillside Acres's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hillside Acres's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hillside Acres
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hillside Acres, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hillside Acres averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hillside Acres — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hillside Acres average
How we know this about Hillside Acres
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 Webb 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 Hillside Acres
When does frost risk typically end in Hillside Acres?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hillside Acres typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Hillside Acres?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hillside Acres typically arrives around Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 3, so the watching starts about Nov 17 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hillside Acres?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hillside Acres sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 3, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hillside Acres?
The federal record around Hillside Acres is light — 2 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Nitrate entries (2), the nearest Nitrate record about 9.9 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 Hillside Acres?
From about Nov 17 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hillside Acres's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hillside Acres'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 Hillside Acres’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hillside Acres's own scale — the 152 acres it covers and 2 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hillside Acres's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hillside Acres, the closest Nitrate record about 9.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hillside Acres's boundary and the 152 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hillside Acres's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hillside Acres has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Webb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hillside Acres's 152 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Webb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Webb 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 Webb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hillside Acres's 152 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hillside Acres you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 152 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 9.9 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 Hillside Acres-wide figureread your own land →