Oyster Creek, 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 Oyster Creek, 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 Oyster Creek 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 Oyster Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Oyster Creek — the short answer
Oyster Creek, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Brazoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Oyster Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Oyster Creek's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Oyster Creek
Each reading below is measured for Oyster Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsOyster Creek runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Brazoria County, the closest normal to Oyster Creek) — 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
MeasuredOyster Creek 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 Oyster Creek is in
Oyster Creek sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Oyster Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brazoria County.
What Grows in Oyster Creek
Every plant below cleared Oyster Creek'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 Oyster Creek?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 13 — 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 Oyster Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Oyster Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XYZ STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- NIKOS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- JOHN CRANEBrownfields · 850 ft
- HEAD AND GUILD EQUIPMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- PIC & PAC GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- SPRINT WASTE SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GFL PLANT SERVICES LP - FREEPORTBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MINE & YOUR PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TRIPLEXUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COASTAL OYSTER CREEK AMMONIA CHEMICAL PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- BTI FREEPORT ASPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AIR LIQUIDE FREEPORT ASUBrownfields · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Oyster Creek'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 Oyster Creek.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Oyster Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Oyster Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Oyster Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Oyster Creek — Toxics Release Inventory (54 sites) and PFAS (6 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Oyster Creek
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 Oyster Creek average
Your land is one point inside Oyster Creek
Everything above resolves to Oyster Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brazoria 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 Oyster Creek Average
Oyster Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Oyster Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Oyster Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Oyster Creek's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Oyster Creek's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Oyster Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Oyster Creek, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Oyster Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Oyster Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Oyster Creek average
How we know this about Oyster Creek
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 Brazoria 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 Oyster Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Oyster Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Oyster Creek typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Oyster Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Oyster Creek typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Oyster Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Oyster Creek sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Oyster Creek?
The federal record around Oyster Creek is a meaningful one — 374 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (189), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Oyster Creek?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Oyster Creek's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Oyster Creek'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 Oyster Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Oyster Creek's own scale — the 1,213 acres it covers and 374 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Oyster Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 374 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Oyster Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Oyster Creek's boundary and the 1,213 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 Oyster Creek's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Oyster Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brazoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Oyster Creek's 1,213 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brazoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brazoria 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 Brazoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Oyster Creek's 1,213 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Oyster Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,213 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Oyster Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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