Seadrift, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Seadrift, 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 Seadrift 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 Seadrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Seadrift — the short answer
Seadrift, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 819 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 28
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 819 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 Calhoun County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Seadrift's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Seadrift's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Seadrift
Each reading below is measured for Seadrift itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSeadrift runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Calhoun County, the closest normal to Seadrift) — 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
MeasuredSeadrift 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 Seadrift is in
Seadrift sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Seadrift's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Seadrift
Every plant below cleared Seadrift's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Seadrift?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 28 (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. 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 Seadrift
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Seadrift. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BAYSIDE EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DICKS FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #10240Brownfields · 1900 ft
- WALTER D HENRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DANIEL EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TRANSPORT SERVICEBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- COCA COLA BOTTLING OF THE SWUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- WALLACE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- MATAGORDA ISLAND NWR NORTH ENDUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- HAROLD BOWERS FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- DOCS DOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CASHWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Seadrift'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 Seadrift.
Total Sites
55
within ~10 miles of Seadrift
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Seadrift
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Seadrift
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Seadrift, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Seadrift — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (36 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Seadrift
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 Seadrift average
Your land is one point inside Seadrift
Everything above resolves to Seadrift as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 819 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calhoun 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 Seadrift Average
Seadrift Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Seadrift
- ●One soil character for all of Seadrift
- ●Frost dates read at Seadrift's scale: Jan 28 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Seadrift's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Seadrift
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Seadrift, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Seadrift averages can't show:
We read public map data around Seadrift — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Seadrift average
How we know this about Seadrift
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 Calhoun 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 Seadrift
When does frost risk typically end in Seadrift?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Seadrift typically lands around Jan 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Seadrift?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Seadrift 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 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Seadrift?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Seadrift sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 28 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 18 to Dec 4, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Seadrift?
The federal record around Seadrift shows 55 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Seadrift?
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 Seadrift's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Seadrift'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 Seadrift’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Seadrift's own scale — the 819 acres it covers and 55 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Seadrift's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 55 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Seadrift, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Seadrift's boundary and the 819 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Seadrift's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Seadrift has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calhoun County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Seadrift's 819 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Seadrift's 819 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Seadrift you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 819 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 Seadrift-wide figureread your own land →
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