La Marque, 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.
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 La Marque, 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 La Marque 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 La Marque — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Marque — the short answer
La Marque, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Galveston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is La Marque's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Marque's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Marque
Each reading below is measured for La Marque itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Marque runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Galveston County, the closest normal to La Marque) — 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
MeasuredLa Marque 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 La Marque is in
La Marque sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Marque's own centroid rather than borrowed from Galveston County.
What Grows in La Marque
Every plant below cleared La Marque's own zone 9b and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Marque?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 La Marque
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Marque. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- VAUTHIER RD SOC WN5261Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- LAMARQUE DSAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- LA MARQUE HIGH SCHOOL AUTO SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CITY OF LA MARQUEPFAS · 2400 ft
- CO A 386TH ENGR BNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STOP N GO MARKETS 652Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LUCKY MINI-MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- D & W LAWN EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- T & T FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- A&A MACHINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SESCO SUPERMARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PATRICK MEDIA GROUP OF HOUSTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Marque'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 La Marque.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Marque
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Marque
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Marque, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of La Marque — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (406 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in La Marque
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 La Marque average
Your land is one point inside La Marque
Everything above resolves to La Marque as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Galveston 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 La Marque Average
La Marque Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across La Marque
- ●One soil character for all of La Marque
- ●Frost dates read at La Marque's scale: Jan 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Marque's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Marque
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Marque, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Marque averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Marque — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Marque average
How we know this about La Marque
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 Galveston 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 La Marque
When does frost risk typically end in La Marque?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Marque typically lands around Jan 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in La Marque?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Marque typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Marque?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Marque sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Nov 13, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Marque?
The federal record around La Marque runs heavier than most — 600 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (406), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 La Marque?
From about Oct 28 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 Nov 27 (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 Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Marque's scale — its 9b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Marque'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 La Marque’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at La Marque's own scale — the 8,808 acres it covers and 600 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Marque's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 600 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Marque, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Marque's boundary and the 8,808 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Marque's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Marque has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Galveston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Marque's 8,808 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Galveston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Galveston 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 Galveston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Marque's 8,808 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Marque you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,808 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 La Marque-wide figureread your own land →
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