Quail Creek, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Quail 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 Quail 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 Quail Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Quail Creek — the short answer
Quail Creek, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 320 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Victoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Victoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~320
- Victoria 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 Victoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Quail Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Quail Creek's 320-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Quail Creek
Each reading below is measured for Quail Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsQuail Creek runs about 320 days between hard freezes (read from Victoria County, the closest normal to Quail 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
MeasuredQuail 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 Quail Creek is in
Quail Creek sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Quail Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Victoria County.
What Grows in Quail Creek
Every plant below cleared Quail Creek's own zone 9b and its 320-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Quail Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Quail Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Quail Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CLEGG INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 900 ft
- BROWN EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- DELTA DRILLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SCHAEFER WELL SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- AMERICAN FREIGHTWAYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RED ARROW FREIGHT LINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PRIMERO MOTORUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- OTIS ENGINEERINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- GULF COAST NEWSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- RIG SOLUTIONS VICTORIAToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- ATLAS OIL VICTORIABrownfields · 0.5 mi
- ATLAS OIL VICTORIA FACILITYToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Quail 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 Quail Creek.
Total Sites
402
within ~10 miles of Quail Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Quail Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Quail Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Quail Creek, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 327 sites within ~10 miles of Quail Creek. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Quail 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 Quail Creek average
Your land is one point inside Quail Creek
Everything above resolves to Quail Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Victoria 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 Quail Creek Average
Quail Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Quail Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Quail Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Quail Creek's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Quail Creek's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Quail Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Quail Creek, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Quail Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Quail Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Quail Creek average
How we know this about Quail Creek
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 Victoria 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 Quail Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Quail Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Quail Creek typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Quail Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Quail Creek typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 320 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Quail Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Quail Creek sees about 320 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Nov 30, about 285 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Quail Creek?
The federal record around Quail Creek is a meaningful one — 402 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (327), the nearest Brownfields 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 Quail Creek?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Quail Creek's scale — its 9b band and its 320-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Quail 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 Quail Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Quail Creek's own scale — the 1,971 acres it covers and 402 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Quail Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 402 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Quail Creek, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Quail Creek's boundary and the 1,971 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~320-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Quail Creek's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Quail Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Victoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Quail Creek's 1,971 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Victoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Victoria 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 Victoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Quail Creek's 1,971 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Quail 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 1,971 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Quail Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasQuail Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides