Pelican Bay, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pelican Bay, 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 Pelican Bay 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 Pelican Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pelican Bay — the short answer
Pelican Bay, Texas: USDA zone 8b, about 292 days between hard freezes, across 429 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~292
- Tarrant County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 429 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 Tarrant County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pelican Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pelican Bay's 292-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pelican Bay
Each reading below is measured for Pelican Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPelican Bay runs about 292 days between hard freezes (read from Tarrant County, the closest normal to Pelican Bay) — 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
MeasuredPelican Bay sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Pelican Bay is in
Pelican Bay sits in the Cross Timbers — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Pelican Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tarrant County.
What Grows in Pelican Bay
Every plant below cleared Pelican Bay's own zone 8b and its 292-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pelican Bay?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Pelican Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pelican Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- XU-19-42-614Nitrate · 1100 ft
- J T LUCKY LADYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SANDY BEACH ROAD GROUND WATER PLUMESuperfund · 0.5 mi
- BUDS PELICAN BAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WEST BAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- QUICKWAY FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- SANDY BEACH MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- TEXAS SPECIALTY METALSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- AZLE EZ STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- RACETRAC 177Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- E-Z WAY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LAKEVIEW MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pelican Bay'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 Pelican Bay.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pelican Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pelican Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pelican Bay, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pelican Bay — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (6 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Pelican Bay
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 Pelican Bay average
Your land is one point inside Pelican Bay
Everything above resolves to Pelican Bay as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 429 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tarrant 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 Pelican Bay Average
Pelican Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pelican Bay
- ●One soil character for all of Pelican Bay
- ●Frost dates read at Pelican Bay's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pelican Bay's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pelican Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pelican Bay, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pelican Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pelican Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pelican Bay average
How we know this about Pelican Bay
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 Tarrant 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 Pelican Bay
When does frost risk typically end in Pelican Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican Bay typically lands around Feb 14, 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 Mar 7.
When is the first frost in Pelican Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pelican Bay typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 292 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pelican Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pelican Bay sees about 292 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 19, about 257 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pelican Bay?
The federal record around Pelican Bay is a meaningful one — 267 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (165), the nearest Nitrate 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 Pelican Bay?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pelican Bay's scale — its 8b band and its 292-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pelican Bay'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 Pelican Bay’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pelican Bay's own scale — the 429 acres it covers and 267 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pelican Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 267 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pelican Bay, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pelican Bay's boundary and the 429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~292-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pelican Bay's own centroid, the Cross TimbersUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pelican Bay has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tarrant County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pelican Bay's 429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tarrant County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tarrant 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 Tarrant County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pelican Bay's 429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pelican Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 429 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Pelican Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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