San Patricio, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
On paper, okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in San Patricio, 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 Patricio 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 Patricio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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San Patricio — the short answer
San Patricio, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 322 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 24
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~322
- San Patricio County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 San Patricio County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is San Patricio's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against San Patricio's 322-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in San Patricio
Each reading below is measured for San Patricio itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSan Patricio runs about 322 days between hard freezes (read from San Patricio County, the closest normal to San Patricio) — 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 Patricio 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 San Patricio is in
San Patricio sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at San Patricio's own centroid rather than borrowed from San Patricio County.
What Grows in San Patricio
Every plant below cleared San Patricio's own zone 9b and its 322-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in San Patricio?
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 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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.
What's on the federal record near San Patricio
Closest first, within ~10 miles of San Patricio. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 1001 MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WW-83-02-203Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- KNOLLE DAIRY 4CAFO · 3.5 mi
- WW-79-58-903Nitrate · 3.5 mi
- KNOLLE DAIRY 5CAFO · 4.2 mi
- WW-79-58-502Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- TIMES MARKET 52Underground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- WW-83-03-502Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- AMIGOS BEEF CATTLECAFO · 6.3 mi
- WW-79-59-501Nitrate · 6.9 mi
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPT 83 YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
- JDS STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from San Patricio'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 Patricio.
Total Sites
66
within ~10 miles of San Patricio
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of San Patricio
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of San Patricio
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around San Patricio, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of San Patricio — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (28 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in San Patricio
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 Patricio average
Your land is one point inside San Patricio
Everything above resolves to San Patricio as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from San Patricio 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 San Patricio Average
San Patricio Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across San Patricio
- ●One soil character for all of San Patricio
- ●Frost dates read at San Patricio's scale: Jan 24 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not San Patricio's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in San Patricio
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in San Patricio, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that San Patricio averages can't show:
We read public map data around San Patricio — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the San Patricio average
How we know this about San Patricio
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 San Patricio 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 San Patricio
When does frost risk typically end in San Patricio?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in San Patricio typically lands around Jan 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in San Patricio?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in San Patricio typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 322 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in San Patricio?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, San Patricio sees about 322 frost-free days — roughly Jan 24 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 14 to Nov 28, about 287 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in San Patricio?
The federal record around San Patricio shows 66 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (29), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in San Patricio?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at San Patricio's scale — its 9b band and its 322-day season. Your yard writes its own version of San Patricio'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 Patricio’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at San Patricio's own scale — the 2,463 acres it covers and 66 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- San Patricio's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 66 documented contamination sites on the federal record near San Patricio, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- San Patricio's boundary and the 2,463 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~322-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at San Patricio's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — San Patricio has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom San Patricio County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so San Patricio's 2,463 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom San Patricio County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom San Patricio 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 San Patricio County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among San Patricio's 2,463 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of San Patricio you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,463 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Patricio-wide figureread your own land →
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