Holland, 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 Holland, 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 Holland 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 Holland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Holland — the short answer
Holland, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Bell County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Bell County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Holland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Holland's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Holland
Each reading below is measured for Holland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHolland runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Bell County, the closest normal to Holland) — 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
MeasuredHolland 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 Holland is in
Holland sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Holland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bell County.
What Grows in Holland
Every plant below cleared Holland's own zone 9a and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Holland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Holland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Holland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOUBLE K DRIVE INUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUPER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GUYS QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BEST BUTANEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- HOLLAND SCRAP RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- CITY OF BARTLETTPFAS · 6.3 mi
- ONE STOP 3Underground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- CITY OF BARTLETTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- BARTLETT ELECTRIC COOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- DUCHESS EXXON 4Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- PAYLESS 880Underground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- CEFCO 49Underground Storage Tanks · 7.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Holland'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 Holland.
Total Sites
30
within ~10 miles of Holland
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Holland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Holland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Holland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Holland — Nitrate (8 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Holland
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 Holland average
Your land is one point inside Holland
Everything above resolves to Holland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bell 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 Holland Average
Holland Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Holland
- ●One soil character for all of Holland
- ●Frost dates read at Holland's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Holland's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Holland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Holland, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Holland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Holland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Holland average
How we know this about Holland
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 Bell 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 Holland
When does frost risk typically end in Holland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Holland typically lands around Feb 18, 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 Mar 11.
When is the first frost in Holland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Holland typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Holland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Holland sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 18, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Holland?
The federal record around Holland shows 30 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Holland?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Holland's scale — its 9a band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Holland'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 Holland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Holland's own scale — the 1,053 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Holland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Holland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Holland's boundary and the 1,053 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Holland's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Holland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bell County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Holland's 1,053 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bell County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bell 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 Bell County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Holland's 1,053 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Holland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,053 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Holland-wide figureread your own land →
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