San Felipe, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 San Felipe, 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 San Felipe 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 San Felipe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
San Felipe — the short answer
San Felipe, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 5
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Austin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Austin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is San Felipe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Felipe's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Felipe
Each reading below is measured for San Felipe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSan Felipe runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Austin County, the closest normal to San Felipe) — 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
MeasuredSan Felipe 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 San Felipe is in
San Felipe sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at San Felipe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Austin County.
What Grows in San Felipe
Every plant below cleared San Felipe's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Felipe?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 5 — 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.
Documented around San Felipe
Survey cells within 31 miles of San Felipe checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 521 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near San Felipe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Felipe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG DIP GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- DOUBLE E GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AP-66-16-405Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- PARK PLACE TRAVEL PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- RIVERSIDE TIRESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HOLLAND TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- STAR STOP 70Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MAASS FLANGE CORP.- SEALYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- SEALY COUNTRY MARKET 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PENCCO SEALYBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- RINKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- KOY CONCRETE SEALY PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Felipe'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 San Felipe.
Total Sites
145
within ~10 miles of San Felipe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Felipe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Felipe
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Felipe, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of San Felipe — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in San Felipe
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 San Felipe average
Your land is one point inside San Felipe
Everything above resolves to San Felipe as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Austin 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 San Felipe Average
San Felipe Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across San Felipe
- ●One soil character for all of San Felipe
- ●Frost dates read at San Felipe's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 5
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Felipe's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Felipe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Felipe, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Felipe averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Felipe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Felipe average
How we know this about San Felipe
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 Austin 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 San Felipe
When does frost risk typically end in San Felipe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Felipe typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in San Felipe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Felipe typically arrives around Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 21, so the watching starts about Nov 5 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Felipe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Felipe sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 5, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 21, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Felipe?
The federal record around San Felipe is a meaningful one — 145 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 San Felipe?
From about Nov 5 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 5 (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 5. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Felipe's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Felipe'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 San Felipe’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at San Felipe's own scale — the 5,350 acres it covers and 145 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Felipe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 145 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Felipe, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Felipe's boundary and the 5,350 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Felipe's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around San Felipe checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — San Felipe has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Austin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Felipe's 5,350 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Austin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Austin 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 Austin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Felipe's 5,350 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Felipe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,350 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 San Felipe-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSan Felipe sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides