Todd Mission, Texas, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Todd Mission, 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 Todd Mission 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 Todd Mission — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Todd Mission — the short answer
Todd Mission, Texas: USDA zone 9a, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 4
- Grimes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Grimes 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 Grimes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Todd Mission's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Todd Mission's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Todd Mission
Each reading below is measured for Todd Mission itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTodd Mission runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Grimes County, the closest normal to Todd Mission) — 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
MeasuredTodd Mission 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 Todd Mission is in
Todd Mission sits in the South Central Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Todd Mission's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Grimes County is mostly East Central Texas Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Todd Mission
Every plant below cleared Todd Mission's own zone 9a and its 300-day season. Each card opens that plant's Texas profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Todd Mission?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 4 — 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 Todd Mission
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Todd Mission. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TEXAS RENAISSANCE FESTIVALUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- KW-60-42-801Nitrate · 2100 ft
- DAVES COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KW-60-42-804Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- KW-60-42-702Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- KW-60-42-805Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- KW-60-42-403Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- M-N-M GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- NATIONAL SEALANTS AND LUBRICANTSBrownfields · 4.5 mi
- KW-60-42-502Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- KW-60-42-407Nitrate · 5.0 mi
- FAST BREAK 5Underground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Todd Mission'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 Todd Mission.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Todd Mission
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Todd Mission
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Todd Mission
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Todd Mission, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Todd Mission — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (36 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Todd Mission
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 Todd Mission average
Your land is one point inside Todd Mission
Everything above resolves to Todd Mission as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Grimes 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 Todd Mission Average
Todd Mission Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Todd Mission
- ●One soil character for all of Todd Mission
- ●Frost dates read at Todd Mission's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Todd Mission's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Todd Mission
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Todd Mission, Texas — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Todd Mission averages can't show:
We read public map data around Todd Mission — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Todd Mission average
How we know this about Todd Mission
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 Grimes 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 Todd Mission
When does frost risk typically end in Todd Mission?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Todd Mission typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Todd Mission?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Todd Mission typically arrives around Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 20, so the watching starts about Nov 4 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Todd Mission?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Todd Mission sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 20, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Todd Mission?
The federal record around Todd Mission shows 88 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Todd Mission?
From about Nov 4 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Todd Mission's scale — its 9a band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Todd Mission'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 Todd Mission’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Todd Mission's own scale — the 1,270 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Todd Mission's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Todd Mission, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Todd Mission's boundary and the 1,270 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~300-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Todd Mission sits in the South Central Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Todd Mission has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Grimes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Todd Mission's 1,270 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Grimes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Grimes 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 Grimes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Todd Mission's 1,270 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Todd Mission you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,270 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 Todd Mission-wide figureread your own land →
More in Texas
Wider growing context
What grows across TexasTodd Mission sits outside our named growing regions, so Texas as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides