Ricardo, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ricardo, 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 Ricardo 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 Ricardo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Ricardo — the short answer
Ricardo, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 316 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Kleberg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Kleberg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~316
- Kleberg County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Kleberg County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Ricardo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ricardo's 316-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ricardo
Each reading below is measured for Ricardo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRicardo runs about 316 days between hard freezes (read from Kleberg County, the closest normal to Ricardo) — 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
MeasuredRicardo 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 Ricardo is in
Ricardo sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Ricardo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Kleberg County.
What Grows in Ricardo
Every plant below cleared Ricardo's own zone 9b and its 316-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ricardo?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (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 Ricardo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ricardo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RICARDO KWIK PANTRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RR-83-34-410Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- RR-83-34-704Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- NAVAL AIR STATION KINGSVILLEPFAS · 1.3 mi
- CITY OF KINGSVILLEPFAS · 1.3 mi
- RR-83-34-502Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- RR-83-33-903Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- RR-83-34-501Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- RR-83-34-706Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- FCC MONITORING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- RR-83-34-801Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- A & R CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ricardo'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 Ricardo.
Total Sites
216
within ~10 miles of Ricardo
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ricardo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ricardo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ricardo, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ricardo — Underground Storage Tanks (141 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ricardo
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 Ricardo average
Your land is one point inside Ricardo
Everything above resolves to Ricardo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Kleberg 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 Ricardo Average
Ricardo Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Ricardo
- ●One soil character for all of Ricardo
- ●Frost dates read at Ricardo's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ricardo's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ricardo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ricardo, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ricardo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ricardo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ricardo average
How we know this about Ricardo
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 Kleberg 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 Ricardo
When does frost risk typically end in Ricardo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ricardo typically lands around Feb 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Ricardo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ricardo 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 316 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ricardo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ricardo sees about 316 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Nov 30, about 281 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ricardo?
The federal record around Ricardo is a meaningful one — 216 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Ricardo?
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 Ricardo's scale — its 9b band and its 316-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ricardo'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 Ricardo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Ricardo's own scale — the 2,857 acres it covers and 216 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ricardo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 216 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ricardo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ricardo's boundary and the 2,857 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~316-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ricardo's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Ricardo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Kleberg County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ricardo's 2,857 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Kleberg County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Kleberg 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 Kleberg County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ricardo's 2,857 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ricardo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,857 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 Ricardo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides