Hilshire Village, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hilshire Village, 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 Hilshire Village 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 Hilshire Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hilshire Village — the short answer
Hilshire Village, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 171 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 17
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~323
- Harris County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 171 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 Harris County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Hilshire Village's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hilshire Village's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hilshire Village
Each reading below is measured for Hilshire Village itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHilshire Village runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Harris County, the closest normal to Hilshire Village) — 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
MeasuredHilshire Village 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 Hilshire Village is in
Hilshire Village sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Hilshire Village's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harris County.
What Grows in Hilshire Village
Every plant below cleared Hilshire Village's own zone 9b and its 323-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hilshire Village?
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 28 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Hilshire Village
Survey cells within 31 miles of Hilshire Village checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 484 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Hilshire Village
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hilshire Village. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- IMS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WESTVIEW WIRT RETAIL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EXXON 67568Brownfields · 1900 ft
- NEW ROZ FOOD MART 21Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- VOGUE CLEANERSBrownfields · 2000 ft
- VALCO INSTRUMENTSBrownfields · 2200 ft
- KROGER FUEL FACILITY 346Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- KROGER #346-34Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CITY OF SPRING VALLEY VILLAGEPFAS · 2600 ft
- STEARNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- HOME DEPOT USA HD6985Brownfields · 2600 ft
- TPG 312Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hilshire Village'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 Hilshire Village.
Total Sites
4,883
within ~10 miles of Hilshire Village
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
22 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hilshire Village
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hilshire Village
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hilshire Village, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hilshire Village — CAFO (109 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (3,470 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hilshire Village
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 Hilshire Village average
Your land is one point inside Hilshire Village
Everything above resolves to Hilshire Village as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 171 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Harris 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 Hilshire Village Average
Hilshire Village Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Hilshire Village
- ●One soil character for all of Hilshire Village
- ●Frost dates read at Hilshire Village's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hilshire Village's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hilshire Village
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hilshire Village, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hilshire Village averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hilshire Village — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hilshire Village average
How we know this about Hilshire Village
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 Harris 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 Hilshire Village
When does frost risk typically end in Hilshire Village?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hilshire Village typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Hilshire Village?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hilshire Village 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 323 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hilshire Village?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hilshire Village sees about 323 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 3, about 288 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hilshire Village?
The federal record around Hilshire Village runs heavier than most — 4,883 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (3,470), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hilshire Village?
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 Hilshire Village's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hilshire Village'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 Hilshire Village’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hilshire Village's own scale — the 171 acres it covers and 4,883 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hilshire Village's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 4,883 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hilshire Village, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hilshire Village's boundary and the 171 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~323-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hilshire Village's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Hilshire Village checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hilshire Village has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Harris County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hilshire Village's 171 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harris County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harris 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 Harris County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hilshire Village's 171 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hilshire Village you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 171 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hilshire Village-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasHilshire Village sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.