Somerset, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Somerset, 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 Somerset 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 Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Somerset — the short answer
Somerset, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- Bexar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Bexar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Somerset's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerset's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somerset
Each reading below is measured for Somerset itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSomerset runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Bexar County, the closest normal to Somerset) — 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
MeasuredSomerset 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 Somerset is in
Somerset sits in the Texas Blackland Prairies — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Somerset's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bexar County.
What Grows in Somerset
Every plant below cleared Somerset's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somerset?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — 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.
Documented around Somerset
Survey cells within 31 miles of Somerset checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 678 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Somerset
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somerset. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SOMERSET ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- 7-ELEVEN 36303Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- YTUARTE GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- LOWES SUPER S 127Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- EZ MART 4382Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- SOMERSET CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- C J KUENSTLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- AY-68-51-201Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- AY-68-51-202Nitrate · 2.3 mi
- AY-68-43-818Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- AY-68-43-807Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- AY-68-43-809Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerset'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 Somerset.
Total Sites
242
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somerset
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerset, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somerset — Nitrate (102 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Somerset
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 Somerset average
Your land is one point inside Somerset
Everything above resolves to Somerset as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bexar 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 Somerset Average
Somerset Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Somerset
- ●One soil character for all of Somerset
- ●Frost dates read at Somerset's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerset's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somerset
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerset, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerset averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerset — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerset average
How we know this about Somerset
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 Bexar 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 Somerset
When does frost risk typically end in Somerset?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Somerset?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somerset typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somerset?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerset sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Nov 25, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerset?
The federal record around Somerset is a meaningful one — 242 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (102), 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 Somerset?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Somerset's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerset'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 Somerset’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Somerset's own scale — the 1,279 acres it covers and 242 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerset's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 242 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somerset, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somerset's boundary and the 1,279 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Somerset's own centroid, the Texas Blackland PrairiesUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Somerset checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Somerset has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bexar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somerset's 1,279 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bexar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bexar 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 Bexar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somerset's 1,279 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somerset you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,279 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 Somerset-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasSomerset sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides