Simonton, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with okra, black-eyed pea, tomato, and jalapeno — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Simonton, 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 Simonton 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 Simonton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Simonton — the short answer
Simonton, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 319 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Fort Bend County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~319
- Fort Bend 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 Fort Bend County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Simonton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Simonton's 319-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Simonton
Each reading below is measured for Simonton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSimonton runs about 319 days between hard freezes (read from Fort Bend County, the closest normal to Simonton) — 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
MeasuredSimonton 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 Simonton is in
Simonton sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Simonton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fort Bend County.
What Grows in Simonton
Plants matched to Simonton's USDA zones 9a, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Simonton?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 27 (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.
Documented around Simonton
Survey cells within 31 miles of Simonton checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 514 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Simonton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Simonton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIMONTON DRIVE INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COUNTRY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- BIG LITTLE SCOTTYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JY-66-24-607Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- JY-65-17-807Nitrate · 2.4 mi
- JY-65-17-106Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- FORT BEND COUNTY MUD 81 WESTON LAKESPFAS · 4.1 mi
- CITY OF FULSHEARPFAS · 4.1 mi
- RANSON FEED STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- COUNTRY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- TPG 305-05Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- FORT BEND COUNTY PCT 4Underground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Simonton'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 Simonton.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Simonton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Simonton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Simonton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Simonton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Simonton — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (14 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Simonton
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 Simonton average
Your land is one point inside Simonton
Everything above resolves to Simonton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fort Bend 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 Simonton Average
Simonton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Simonton
- ●One soil character for all of Simonton
- ●Frost dates read at Simonton's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Simonton's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Simonton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Simonton, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Simonton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Simonton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Simonton average
How we know this about Simonton
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 Fort Bend 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 Simonton
When does frost risk typically end in Simonton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Simonton typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Simonton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Simonton 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 319 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Simonton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Simonton sees about 319 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Nov 28, about 284 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Simonton?
The federal record around Simonton is a meaningful one — 128 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), 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 Simonton?
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 Simonton's scale — its 9a band and its 319-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Simonton'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 Simonton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Simonton's own scale — the 1,504 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Simonton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Simonton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Simonton's boundary and the 1,504 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Simonton's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Simonton checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Simonton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fort Bend County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Simonton's 1,504 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fort Bend County
- The candidate plant list — Texas's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Texas
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fort Bend 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 Fort Bend County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Simonton's 1,504 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Simonton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,504 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 Simonton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSimonton sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides