Three Rivers, 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.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Three Rivers, 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 Three Rivers 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 Three Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Three Rivers — the short answer
Three Rivers, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 311 days between hard freezes, across 936 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- Live Oak County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Live Oak County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~311
- Live Oak County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 936 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 Live Oak County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Three Rivers's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Three Rivers's 311-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Three Rivers
Each reading below is measured for Three Rivers itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThree Rivers runs about 311 days between hard freezes (read from Live Oak County, the closest normal to Three Rivers) — 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
MeasuredThree Rivers 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 Three Rivers is in
Three Rivers sits in the Southern Texas Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Three Rivers's own centroid rather than borrowed from Live Oak County.
What Grows in Three Rivers
Every plant below cleared Three Rivers's own zone 9b and its 311-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Three Rivers?
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 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Three Rivers
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Three Rivers. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TWO W PROPERTIESUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- HUNTER-ASH OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CORNER STORE 0425Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- THE TEXAN 4Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- THREE RIVERS ISDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- THREE RIVERS REFINERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VALERO THREE RIVERS REFINERYToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- BYRNE MOTORS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VALERO PARTNERS THREE RIVERSToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- FCI THREE RIVERSToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- FCI THREE RIVERSBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- DIAMOND SHAMROCK REFINERY - THREE RIVERSSuperfund · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Three Rivers'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 Three Rivers.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Three Rivers
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Three Rivers
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Three Rivers
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Three Rivers, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Three Rivers — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (62 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Three Rivers
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 Three Rivers average
Your land is one point inside Three Rivers
Everything above resolves to Three Rivers as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 936 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Live Oak 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 Three Rivers Average
Three Rivers Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Three Rivers
- ●One soil character for all of Three Rivers
- ●Frost dates read at Three Rivers's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Three Rivers's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Three Rivers
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Three Rivers, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Three Rivers averages can't show:
We read public map data around Three Rivers — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Three Rivers average
How we know this about Three Rivers
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 Live Oak 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 Three Rivers
When does frost risk typically end in Three Rivers?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Three Rivers typically lands around Feb 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Three Rivers?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Three Rivers typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 311 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Three Rivers?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Three Rivers sees about 311 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Nov 26, about 276 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Three Rivers?
The federal record around Three Rivers is a meaningful one — 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Three Rivers?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Three Rivers's scale — its 9b band and its 311-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Three Rivers'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 Three Rivers’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Three Rivers's own scale — the 936 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Three Rivers's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Three Rivers, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Three Rivers's boundary and the 936 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~311-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Three Rivers's own centroid, the Southern Texas PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Three Rivers has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Live Oak County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Three Rivers's 936 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Live Oak County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Live Oak 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 Live Oak County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Three Rivers's 936 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Three Rivers you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 936 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Three Rivers-wide figureread your own land →
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