Pinebrook, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Pinebrook, 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 Pinebrook 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 Pinebrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Pinebrook — the short answer
Pinebrook, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Grimes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Pinebrook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pinebrook's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pinebrook
Each reading below is measured for Pinebrook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPinebrook runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Grimes County, the closest normal to Pinebrook) — 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
MeasuredPinebrook sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Pinebrook is in
Pinebrook sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pinebrook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grimes County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pinebrook
Every plant below cleared Pinebrook's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pinebrook?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Pinebrook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pinebrook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KW-60-42-404Nitrate · 1.5 mi
- FAST BREAK 5Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FRIENDLY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- KW-60-42-403Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- KW-60-42-407Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- KW-60-42-502Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- H C CHANDLER & SON INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- H C CHANDLER & SON INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- STONEHAM FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- KW-60-42-805Nitrate · 3.2 mi
- FORUM ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES PLANTERSVILLEToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- KW-60-42-702Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pinebrook'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 Pinebrook.
Total Sites
70
within ~10 miles of Pinebrook
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pinebrook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pinebrook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pinebrook, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pinebrook — Nitrate (48 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pinebrook
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 Pinebrook average
Your land is one point inside Pinebrook
Everything above resolves to Pinebrook as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grimes 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 Pinebrook Average
Pinebrook Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Pinebrook
- ●One soil character for all of Pinebrook
- ●Frost dates read at Pinebrook's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pinebrook's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pinebrook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pinebrook, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pinebrook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pinebrook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pinebrook average
How we know this about Pinebrook
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 Grimes 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 Pinebrook
When does frost risk typically end in Pinebrook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pinebrook typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Pinebrook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pinebrook typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pinebrook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pinebrook sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 20, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pinebrook?
The federal record around Pinebrook shows 70 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (48), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Pinebrook?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pinebrook's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pinebrook'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 Pinebrook’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pinebrook's own scale — the 1,758 acres it covers and 70 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pinebrook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 70 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pinebrook, the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pinebrook's boundary and the 1,758 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pinebrook sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pinebrook has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grimes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pinebrook's 1,758 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grimes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grimes 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 Grimes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pinebrook's 1,758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pinebrook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,758 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.5 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 Pinebrook-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasPinebrook sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides