Tierra Verde, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Tierra Verde, 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 Tierra Verde 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 Tierra Verde — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tierra Verde — the short answer
Tierra Verde, Texas: USDA zone 9b, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Nueces County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Nueces County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Tierra Verde's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tierra Verde's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tierra Verde
Each reading below is measured for Tierra Verde itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTierra Verde runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Nueces County, the closest normal to Tierra Verde) — 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
MeasuredTierra Verde 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 Tierra Verde is in
Tierra Verde sits in the Western Gulf Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Great Plains. That is read at Tierra Verde's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nueces County.
What Grows in Tierra Verde
Every plant below cleared Tierra Verde's own zone 9b and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tierra Verde?
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 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 18 — 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 Tierra Verde
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tierra Verde. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WIS ROBSTOWNBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- VCP AGUA DULCE STATIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- UB-83-11-801Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- NUECES COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- DAWKINS ON-SITE ROBSTOWN CBP1Toxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- US ECOLOGY - TEXAS RAIL TRANSFER FACILITYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- TXDOT MAINTENANCE FACILITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- UB-83-10-902Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- HANSON PIPE & PRODUCTS INC ROBSTOWNToxics Release Inventory · 2.7 mi
- UB-83-19-101Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- UB-83-11-401Nitrate · 3.0 mi
- GULF COAST COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tierra Verde'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 Tierra Verde.
Total Sites
258
within ~10 miles of Tierra Verde
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tierra Verde
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tierra Verde
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Tierra Verde
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 Tierra Verde average
Your land is one point inside Tierra Verde
Everything above resolves to Tierra Verde as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nueces County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 town 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 Tierra Verde Average
Tierra Verde Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Tierra Verde
- ●One soil character for all of Tierra Verde
- ●Frost dates read at Tierra Verde's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tierra Verde's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tierra Verde
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tierra Verde, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tierra Verde averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tierra Verde — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tierra Verde average
How we know this about Tierra Verde
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Nueces 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Tierra Verde
When does frost risk typically end in Tierra Verde?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tierra Verde 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 Tierra Verde?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tierra Verde typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tierra Verde?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tierra Verde sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 4, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tierra Verde?
The federal record around Tierra Verde is a meaningful one — 258 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (152), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.5 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 Tierra Verde?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tierra Verde's scale — its 9b band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tierra Verde'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 Tierra Verde’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tierra Verde's own scale — the 1,280 acres it covers and 258 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tierra Verde's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 258 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tierra Verde, the closest Brownfields record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tierra Verde's boundary and the 1,280 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tierra Verde's own centroid, the Western Gulf Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tierra Verde has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nueces County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tierra Verde's 1,280 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nueces County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nueces 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 Nueces County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tierra Verde's 1,280 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tierra Verde you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,280 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.5 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 Tierra Verde-wide figureread your own land →