Los Fresnos, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Los Fresnos, 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 Los Fresnos 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 Los Fresnos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Los Fresnos — the short answer
Los Fresnos, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 335 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Cameron County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 23
- Cameron County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~335
- Cameron County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Cameron County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Los Fresnos's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Los Fresnos's 335-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Los Fresnos
Each reading below is measured for Los Fresnos itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLos Fresnos runs about 335 days between hard freezes (read from Cameron County, the closest normal to Los Fresnos) — 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
MeasuredLos Fresnos sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Los Fresnos is in
Los Fresnos sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Los Fresnos's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cameron County.
What Grows in Los Fresnos
Every plant below cleared Los Fresnos's own zone 10a and its 335-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Los Fresnos?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 23 — 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 Los Fresnos
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Los Fresnos. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAMILY DOLLAR #5282Brownfields · 650 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 2765Brownfields · 700 ft
- WALMART SUPERCENTER 2765Underground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- MENDOZA GROCERY & SSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HARVEYS LP GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SALINAS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SCOGIN PHILLIPS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BAYVIEW GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHWESTERN LABORATORIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CORNER STORE 1517Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40744Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- TONYS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Los Fresnos'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 Los Fresnos.
Total Sites
335
within ~10 miles of Los Fresnos
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Los Fresnos
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Los Fresnos
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Los Fresnos, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Los Fresnos — Underground Storage Tanks (264 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Los Fresnos
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 Los Fresnos average
Your land is one point inside Los Fresnos
Everything above resolves to Los Fresnos as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Cameron 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 Los Fresnos Average
Los Fresnos Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Los Fresnos
- ●One soil character for all of Los Fresnos
- ●Frost dates read at Los Fresnos's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Los Fresnos's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Los Fresnos
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Los Fresnos, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Los Fresnos averages can't show:
We read public map data around Los Fresnos — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Los Fresnos average
How we know this about Los Fresnos
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 Cameron 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 Los Fresnos
When does frost risk typically end in Los Fresnos?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Los Fresnos typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Los Fresnos?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Los Fresnos typically arrives around Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 9, so the watching starts about Nov 23 — about 335 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Los Fresnos?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Los Fresnos sees about 335 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 9, about 300 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Los Fresnos?
The federal record around Los Fresnos is a meaningful one — 335 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (264), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Los Fresnos?
From about Nov 23 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Los Fresnos's scale — its 10a band and its 335-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Los Fresnos'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 Los Fresnos’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Los Fresnos's own scale — the 2,810 acres it covers and 335 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Los Fresnos's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 335 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Los Fresnos, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Los Fresnos's boundary and the 2,810 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~335-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Los Fresnos's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Los Fresnos has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Cameron County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Los Fresnos's 2,810 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cameron County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cameron 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 Cameron County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Los Fresnos's 2,810 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Los Fresnos you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,810 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Los Fresnos-wide figureread your own land →