Texas City, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Texas City, 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 Texas City 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 Texas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Texas City — the short answer
Texas City, Texas: USDA zone 10a, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 42K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 20
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- Galveston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 42K 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 Galveston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Texas City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Texas City's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Texas City
Each reading below is measured for Texas City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTexas City runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Galveston County, the closest normal to Texas City) — 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
MeasuredTexas City sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Texas City is in
Texas City sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Texas City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Galveston County.
What Grows in Texas City
Every plant below cleared Texas City's own zone 10a and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Texas City?
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 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Texas City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Texas City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE 7Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LABORATORY SERVICE TEXAS CITY LABBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- TEXAS CITY TERMINAL RAILWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- 863 BLACK MARLIN TERMINAL REGULATOR STATBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- STYROLUTION AMERICA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- TEXAS CITY SEAFOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- STAR FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FLOYD STAPLETONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- M & M FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BILL MARTIN FIRESTONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HLC ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- MONTEGUTS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Texas City'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 Texas City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Texas City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Texas City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Texas City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Texas City — Toxics Release Inventory (44 sites) and PFAS (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Texas City
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 Texas City average
Your land is one point inside Texas City
Everything above resolves to Texas City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 42K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Galveston 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 Texas City Average
Texas City Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Texas City
- ●One soil character for all of Texas City
- ●Frost dates read at Texas City's scale: Jan 20 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Texas City's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Texas City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Texas City, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Texas City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Texas City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Texas City average
How we know this about Texas City
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 Galveston 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 Texas City
When does frost risk typically end in Texas City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Texas City typically lands around Jan 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Texas City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Texas City typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Texas City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Texas City sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Jan 20 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 10 to Nov 13, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Texas City?
The federal record around Texas City runs heavier than most — 519 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (329), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Texas City?
From about Oct 28 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 Nov 27 (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 Nov 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Texas City's scale — its 10a band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Texas City'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 Texas City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Texas City's own scale — the 42,410 acres it covers and 519 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Texas City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 519 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Texas City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Texas City's boundary and the 42,410 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Texas City's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Texas City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Galveston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Texas City's 42,410 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Galveston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Galveston 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 Galveston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Texas City's 42,410 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Texas City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 42,410 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.9 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 Texas City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Growing region
Nearby growing guides