Sweeny, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Sweeny, 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 Sweeny 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 Sweeny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sweeny — the short answer
Sweeny, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 13
- Brazoria County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Brazoria 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 Brazoria County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Sweeny's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sweeny's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sweeny
Each reading below is measured for Sweeny itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSweeny runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Brazoria County, the closest normal to Sweeny) — 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
MeasuredSweeny 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 Sweeny is in
Sweeny sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Sweeny's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brazoria County.
What Grows in Sweeny
Every plant below cleared Sweeny's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sweeny?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 13 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Sweeny
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sweeny. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWEENY ISD TRANSPORTATION DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PETRO CHEMICAL SERVICESBrownfields · 2100 ft
- QUICK STOP 601 MAIN STUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- FAMILY DOLLAR #2541Brownfields · 2400 ft
- GRAB N GO 3Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- J & D SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- SWEENY HOSPITAL DISTRICTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- CITY OF SWEENYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- MORRIS TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- APA OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CORNER STORE 2585Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SWEENY OLD OCEAN TELEPHONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sweeny'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 Sweeny.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Sweeny
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sweeny
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sweeny
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sweeny, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sweeny — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (54 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Sweeny
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 Sweeny average
Your land is one point inside Sweeny
Everything above resolves to Sweeny as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Brazoria 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 Sweeny Average
Sweeny Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Sweeny
- ●One soil character for all of Sweeny
- ●Frost dates read at Sweeny's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sweeny's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sweeny
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sweeny, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sweeny averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sweeny — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sweeny average
How we know this about Sweeny
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 Brazoria 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 Sweeny
When does frost risk typically end in Sweeny?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sweeny 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 Sweeny?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sweeny typically arrives around Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 29, so the watching starts about Nov 13 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sweeny?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sweeny sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Nov 29, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sweeny?
The federal record around Sweeny is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), 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 Sweeny?
From about Nov 13 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sweeny's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sweeny'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 Sweeny’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sweeny's own scale — the 1,272 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sweeny's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sweeny, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sweeny's boundary and the 1,272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sweeny's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sweeny has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Brazoria County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sweeny's 1,272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brazoria County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brazoria 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 Brazoria County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sweeny's 1,272 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sweeny you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,272 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 Sweeny-wide figureread your own land →
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