Holiday Lakes, 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 Holiday Lakes, 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 Holiday Lakes 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 Holiday Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Holiday Lakes — the short answer
Holiday Lakes, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 563 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 563 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 Brazoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Holiday Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holiday Lakes's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holiday Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Holiday Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHoliday Lakes runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Brazoria County, the closest normal to Holiday Lakes) — 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
MeasuredHoliday Lakes 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 Holiday Lakes is in
Holiday Lakes sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Holiday Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brazoria County.
What Grows in Holiday Lakes
Every plant below cleared Holiday Lakes's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holiday Lakes?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Holiday Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holiday Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE TRADING POSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CROSS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OIL PATCH BRAZOS VALLEYToxics Release Inventory · 3.3 mi
- TRUCK TERMINALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- VIRGINIA MCPHERSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- GAS ECTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- BRAZORIA COUNTY SHERIFFS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- ROSHARON GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- ENTEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- W R GRACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- THEOPHILUS PRISON MINISTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- BUGSYS LIQUOR STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holiday Lakes'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 Holiday Lakes.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holiday Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holiday Lakes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 198 sites within ~10 miles of Holiday Lakes. 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 Holiday Lakes
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 Holiday Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Holiday Lakes
Everything above resolves to Holiday Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 563 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brazoria 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 Holiday Lakes Average
Holiday Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Holiday Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Holiday Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Holiday Lakes's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holiday Lakes's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holiday Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holiday Lakes, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holiday Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holiday Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holiday Lakes average
How we know this about Holiday Lakes
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 Brazoria 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 Holiday Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Holiday Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday Lakes typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Holiday Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holiday Lakes typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holiday Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holiday Lakes sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holiday Lakes?
The federal record around Holiday Lakes is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (198), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Holiday Lakes?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holiday Lakes's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holiday Lakes'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 Holiday Lakes’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Holiday Lakes's own scale — the 563 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holiday Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holiday Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holiday Lakes's boundary and the 563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holiday Lakes's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Holiday Lakes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brazoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holiday Lakes's 563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brazoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brazoria 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 Brazoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holiday Lakes's 563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holiday Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 563 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Holiday Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides