Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sandy Hollow-Escondidas — the short answer
Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Nueces 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 Nueces County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Each reading below is measured for Sandy Hollow-Escondidas itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSandy Hollow-Escondidas runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Nueces County, the closest normal to Sandy Hollow-Escondidas) — 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
MeasuredSandy Hollow-Escondidas 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas is in
Sandy Hollow-Escondidas sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nueces County.
What Grows in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Every plant below cleared Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TIMES MARKET 52Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- 1001 MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- UB-83-02-702Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- WW-83-02-203Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- UB-83-02-701Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- PUBLIC WORKS DEPT 83 YARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- JAYS OIL SERVICEBrownfields · 5.1 mi
- UB-83-01-901Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- REN SERVICESBrownfields · 5.6 mi
- KNOLLE DAIRY 4CAFO · 5.6 mi
- UB-83-11-102Nitrate · 5.7 mi
- KNOLLE DAIRY 5CAFO · 5.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sandy Hollow-Escondidas'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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas.
Total Sites
65
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (32 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas average
Your land is one point inside Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Everything above resolves to Sandy Hollow-Escondidas as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nueces 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas Average
Sandy Hollow-Escondidas Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
- ●One soil character for all of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
- ●Frost dates read at Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sandy Hollow-Escondidas averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sandy Hollow-Escondidas — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sandy Hollow-Escondidas average
How we know this about Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
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 Nueces 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas
When does frost risk typically end in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sandy Hollow-Escondidas sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 4, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
The federal record around Sandy Hollow-Escondidas shows 65 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (32), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas'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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's own scale — the 5,031 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sandy Hollow-Escondidas, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's boundary and the 5,031 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sandy Hollow-Escondidas has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nueces County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's 5,031 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nueces County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nueces 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 Nueces County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sandy Hollow-Escondidas's 5,031 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sandy Hollow-Escondidas you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,031 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.4 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 Sandy Hollow-Escondidas-wide figureread your own land →