Radar Base, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Radar Base, 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 Radar Base 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 Radar Base — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Radar Base — the short answer
Radar Base, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 313 days between hard freezes, across 710 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 31
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~313
- Maverick County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 710 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 Maverick County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Radar Base's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Radar Base's 313-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Radar Base
Each reading below is measured for Radar Base itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRadar Base runs about 313 days between hard freezes (read from Maverick County, the closest normal to Radar Base) — 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
MeasuredRadar Base 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 Radar Base is in
Radar Base sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Radar Base's own centroid rather than borrowed from Maverick County.
What Grows in Radar Base
Every plant below cleared Radar Base's own zone 9a and its 313-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Radar Base?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 31 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Radar Base
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Radar Base. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOVES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- RUNNELLS PETERS FEEDYARDCAFO · 2.7 mi
- LA BABIA CATTLE FEEDERSCAFO · 3.2 mi
- BURRIS RANCH & PECAN ORCHARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- CASINO GROCERY 4Underground Storage Tanks · 6.9 mi
- MINIT MART 4Underground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- SIX PACK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.4 mi
- JACINTO ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- MINIT MART 3Underground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- MAYELOS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.7 mi
- SECO GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40533Underground Storage Tanks · 8.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Radar Base'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 Radar Base.
Total Sites
23
within ~10 miles of Radar Base
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Radar Base
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Radar Base
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •Large animal operations push nitrates and bacteria downstream. Below one, test your water.
Check your specific parcel in Radar Base
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 Radar Base average
Your land is one point inside Radar Base
Everything above resolves to Radar Base as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 710 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Maverick 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 Radar Base Average
Radar Base Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Radar Base
- ●One soil character for all of Radar Base
- ●Frost dates read at Radar Base's scale: Jan 31 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Radar Base's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Radar Base
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Radar Base, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Radar Base averages can't show:
We read public map data around Radar Base — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Radar Base average
How we know this about Radar Base
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 Maverick 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 Radar Base
When does frost risk typically end in Radar Base?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Radar Base typically lands around Jan 31, 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 21.
When is the first frost in Radar Base?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Radar Base typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 313 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Radar Base?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Radar Base sees about 313 frost-free days — roughly Jan 31 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 21 to Nov 26, about 278 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Radar Base?
The federal record around Radar Base is light — 23 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (19), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Radar Base?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Radar Base's scale — its 9a band and its 313-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Radar Base'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 Radar Base’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Radar Base's own scale — the 710 acres it covers and 23 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Radar Base's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 23 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Radar Base, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Radar Base's boundary and the 710 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~313-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Radar Base's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Radar Base has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Maverick County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Radar Base's 710 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Maverick County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Maverick 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 Maverick County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Radar Base's 710 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Radar Base you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 710 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 Radar Base-wide figureread your own land →