La Porte, 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.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in La Porte, 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 Porte 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 Porte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Porte — the short answer
La Porte, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 323 days between hard freezes, across 12K 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
- 12K 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 La Porte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Porte's 323-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Porte
Each reading below is measured for La Porte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Porte runs about 323 days between hard freezes (read from Harris County, the closest normal to La Porte) — 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 Porte 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 Porte is in
La Porte sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at La Porte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Harris County.
What Grows in La Porte
Every plant below cleared La Porte'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 La Porte?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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. 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 La Porte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Porte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INDUSTRIAL PIPE AND PLASTICS SSAToxics Release Inventory · 1000 ft
- PUBLIC WORKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HARVEY & RIHN AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEM-COASTBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CLIFF HYDE FLYING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- JV INDUSTRIAL LA PORTEToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 41029Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NRC GULF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EAGLE CONSTRUCTION & ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DIESEL FUEL MAINTENANCE SERVICE IIBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- VPS TESTING & INSPECTION, INC.Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- PFEIFFER & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Porte'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 Porte.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Porte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Porte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Porte, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of La Porte — Toxics Release Inventory (286 sites) and Superfund (29 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in La Porte
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 Porte average
Your land is one point inside La Porte
Everything above resolves to La Porte as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 12K 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 La Porte Average
La Porte Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across La Porte
- ●One soil character for all of La Porte
- ●Frost dates read at La Porte's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Porte's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Porte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Porte, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Porte averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Porte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Porte average
How we know this about La Porte
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 La Porte
When does frost risk typically end in La Porte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Porte 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 La Porte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Porte 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 La Porte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Porte 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 La Porte?
The federal record around La Porte runs heavier than most — 1,976 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (938), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory 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 La Porte?
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 La Porte's scale — its 9b band and its 323-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Porte'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 Porte’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at La Porte's own scale — the 11,907 acres it covers and 1,976 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Porte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,976 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Porte, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Porte's boundary and the 11,907 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 La Porte's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Porte 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 La Porte's 11,907 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 La Porte's 11,907 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Porte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,907 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 La Porte-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasLa Porte sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides