Spring Branch, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Branch, 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 Spring Branch 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 Spring Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Branch — the short answer
Spring Branch, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 295 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Comal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Comal County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~295
- Comal 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 Comal County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Spring Branch's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Branch's 295-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Branch
Each reading below is measured for Spring Branch itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSpring Branch runs about 295 days between hard freezes (read from Comal County, the closest normal to Spring Branch) — 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
MeasuredSpring Branch 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 Spring Branch is in
Spring Branch sits in the Edwards Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Spring Branch's own centroid rather than borrowed from Comal County.
What Grows in Spring Branch
Every plant below cleared Spring Branch's own zone 9a and its 295-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Branch?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Spring Branch
Survey cells within 31 miles of Spring Branch checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 658 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Spring Branch
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Branch. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPRING BRANCH STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- SPRING BRANCH CORNER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- FISCHERS NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET 32Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- DX-68-13-206Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- DONS METAL PLATINGBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE 40571Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- PIT STOP FOOD MART 20Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- DX-68-06-407Nitrate · 4.3 mi
- FISHER AVIATION INCBrownfields · 4.6 mi
- SYNCO CHEMICALBrownfields · 4.9 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #3056Brownfields · 5.0 mi
- DX-68-13-6 (Hanz)Nitrate · 5.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Branch'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 Spring Branch.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Branch
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Branch
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Branch, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Branch. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Spring Branch
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 Spring Branch average
Your land is one point inside Spring Branch
Everything above resolves to Spring Branch as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Comal 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 Spring Branch Average
Spring Branch Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Spring Branch
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Branch
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Branch's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Branch's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Branch
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Branch, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Branch averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Branch — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Branch average
How we know this about Spring Branch
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 Comal 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 Spring Branch
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Branch?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Branch typically lands around Feb 11, 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 Mar 4.
When is the first frost in Spring Branch?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Branch typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 295 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Branch?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Branch sees about 295 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 19, about 260 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Branch?
The federal record around Spring Branch shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Spring Branch?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Branch's scale — its 9a band and its 295-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Branch'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 Spring Branch’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Spring Branch's own scale — the 1,310 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Branch's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Branch, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Branch's boundary and the 1,310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~295-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Branch's own centroid, the Edwards PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Spring Branch checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Spring Branch has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Comal County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Branch's 1,310 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Comal County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Comal 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 Comal County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Branch's 1,310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Branch you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,310 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 Spring Branch-wide figureread your own land →
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