North Escobares, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — 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 North Escobares, 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 North Escobares 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 North Escobares — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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North Escobares — the short answer
North Escobares, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 462 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- Starr County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 462 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 Starr County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is North Escobares's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against North Escobares's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in North Escobares
Each reading below is measured for North Escobares itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNorth Escobares runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from Starr County, the closest normal to North Escobares) — 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
MeasuredNorth Escobares 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 North Escobares is in
North Escobares sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at North Escobares's own centroid rather than borrowed from Starr County.
What Grows in North Escobares
Every plant below cleared North Escobares's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in North Escobares?
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 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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 North Escobares
Closest first, within ~10 miles of North Escobares. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ROMA ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PUEBLO EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- TILOS DRIVE THRUUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RAZEEBA MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40600Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN 59488Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- EL TIGRE FOOD STORE 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- EL VENADO DRIVE THRUUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- CHARLIES DRIVE INUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- EL PAISANOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- FAMILY DOLLAR #3273Brownfields · 2.6 mi
- R&R KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from North Escobares'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 North Escobares.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of North Escobares
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 concentrated animal feeding operation
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of North Escobares
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of North Escobares
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around North Escobares, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of North Escobares — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (44 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 North Escobares
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 North Escobares average
Your land is one point inside North Escobares
Everything above resolves to North Escobares as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 462 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Starr 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 North Escobares Average
North Escobares Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across North Escobares
- ●One soil character for all of North Escobares
- ●Frost dates read at North Escobares's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not North Escobares's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in North Escobares
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in North Escobares, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that North Escobares averages can't show:
We read public map data around North Escobares — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the North Escobares average
How we know this about North Escobares
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 Starr 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 North Escobares
When does frost risk typically end in North Escobares?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in North Escobares typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in North Escobares?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in North Escobares typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in North Escobares?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, North Escobares sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Nov 25, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in North Escobares?
The federal record around North Escobares is a meaningful one — 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 North Escobares?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at North Escobares's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of North Escobares'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 North Escobares’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at North Escobares's own scale — the 462 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- North Escobares's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near North Escobares, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- North Escobares's boundary and the 462 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at North Escobares's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — North Escobares has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Starr County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so North Escobares's 462 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Starr County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Starr 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 Starr County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among North Escobares's 462 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of North Escobares you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 462 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 North Escobares-wide figureread your own land →
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