Port Aransas, 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 Port Aransas, 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 Port Aransas 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 Port Aransas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port Aransas — the short answer
Port Aransas, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Nueces County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Port Aransas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port Aransas's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port Aransas
Each reading below is measured for Port Aransas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort Aransas runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Nueces County, the closest normal to Port Aransas) — 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
MeasuredPort Aransas 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
What Grows in Port Aransas
Every plant below cleared Port Aransas's own zone 10a and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port Aransas?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Port Aransas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port Aransas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SNAPPY FOODS 19Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ISLAND MOORINGS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40793Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 25158Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STRIPES 2141Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- PORT ARANSAS FAMILY CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NUECES COUNTY WATER CONTROL & ID 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CITY AUDITORIUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DEEP SEA HEADQUARTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- TXDOT FERRY OPERATIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- BILMORE & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GULLEYS DIVING SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port Aransas'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 Port Aransas.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port Aransas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port Aransas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Port Aransas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Port Aransas — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (93 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.
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 Port Aransas
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 Port Aransas average
Your land is one point inside Port Aransas
Everything above resolves to Port Aransas as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nueces 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 Port Aransas Average
Port Aransas Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Port Aransas
- ●One soil character for all of Port Aransas
- ●Frost dates read at Port Aransas's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port Aransas's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port Aransas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port Aransas, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port Aransas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port Aransas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port Aransas average
How we know this about Port Aransas
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 Nueces 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 Port Aransas
When does frost risk typically end in Port Aransas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port Aransas 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 Port Aransas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port Aransas typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port Aransas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port Aransas sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 4, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port Aransas?
The federal record around Port Aransas is a meaningful one — 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Port Aransas?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Port Aransas's scale — its 10a band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port Aransas'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 Port Aransas’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Port Aransas's own scale — the 5,740 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port Aransas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port Aransas, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port Aransas's boundary and the 5,740 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port Aransas has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nueces County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port Aransas's 5,740 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nueces County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nueces 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 Nueces County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port Aransas's 5,740 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port Aransas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,740 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.9 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 Port Aransas-wide figureread your own land →