K-Bar Ranch, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in K-Bar Ranch, 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 K-Bar Ranch 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 K-Bar Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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K-Bar Ranch — the short answer
K-Bar Ranch, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Jim Wells County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Jim Wells County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is K-Bar Ranch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against K-Bar Ranch's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in K-Bar Ranch
Each reading below is measured for K-Bar Ranch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsK-Bar Ranch runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Jim Wells County, the closest normal to K-Bar Ranch) — 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
MeasuredK-Bar Ranch 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 K-Bar Ranch is in
K-Bar Ranch sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at K-Bar Ranch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jim Wells County.
What Grows in K-Bar Ranch
Every plant below cleared K-Bar Ranch'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 K-Bar Ranch?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near K-Bar Ranch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of K-Bar Ranch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOWES SUPER S 110Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MARKS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40819Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ORANGE GROVE MOTORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PW-83-01-514Nitrate · 2.6 mi
- S M HERSCHAPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY # 10841Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- O G PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- ORANGE GROVE ISD BUS BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- VAUGHN ENERGY SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- ENVIRONMENTAL EVOLUTIONS TRANSPORTATIONBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- RESOURCE RECYCLING SERVICESBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from K-Bar Ranch'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 K-Bar Ranch.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of K-Bar Ranch
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of K-Bar Ranch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of K-Bar Ranch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around K-Bar Ranch, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of K-Bar Ranch. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in K-Bar Ranch
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 K-Bar Ranch average
Your land is one point inside K-Bar Ranch
Everything above resolves to K-Bar Ranch as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jim Wells 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 K-Bar Ranch Average
K-Bar Ranch Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across K-Bar Ranch
- ●One soil character for all of K-Bar Ranch
- ●Frost dates read at K-Bar Ranch's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not K-Bar Ranch's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in K-Bar Ranch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in K-Bar Ranch, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that K-Bar Ranch averages can't show:
We read public map data around K-Bar Ranch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the K-Bar Ranch average
How we know this about K-Bar Ranch
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 Jim Wells 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 K-Bar Ranch
When does frost risk typically end in K-Bar Ranch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in K-Bar Ranch typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in K-Bar Ranch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in K-Bar Ranch typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in K-Bar Ranch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, K-Bar Ranch sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 30, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in K-Bar Ranch?
The federal record around K-Bar Ranch shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 K-Bar Ranch?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at K-Bar Ranch's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of K-Bar Ranch'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 K-Bar Ranch’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at K-Bar Ranch's own scale — the 2,156 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- K-Bar Ranch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near K-Bar Ranch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- K-Bar Ranch's boundary and the 2,156 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 K-Bar Ranch's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — K-Bar Ranch has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jim Wells County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so K-Bar Ranch's 2,156 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jim Wells County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jim Wells 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 Jim Wells County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among K-Bar Ranch's 2,156 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of K-Bar Ranch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,156 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.5 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 K-Bar Ranch-wide figureread your own land →
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