Asbury Lake, Florida, 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.
Growers here do well with tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and loquat — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Asbury Lake, 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 Asbury Lake 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 Asbury Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Asbury Lake — the short answer
Asbury Lake, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 Clay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Asbury Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Asbury Lake's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Asbury Lake
Each reading below is measured for Asbury Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAsbury Lake runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Clay County, the closest normal to Asbury Lake) — 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
MeasuredAsbury Lake 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 Asbury Lake is in
Asbury Lake sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Asbury Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Asbury Lake
Plants matched to Asbury Lake's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Asbury Lake?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Asbury Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Asbury Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PRICES STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WINN-DIXIE #135Brownfields · 1.3 mi
- LAKE ASBURY CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- FLORIDA SOLITE COToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- STONERIDGE FARMS INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- ORANGE PARK MALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SHADOWLAWN FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- SHELL-FIRST COAST ENERGY #1073Underground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- COLLIER'S WASTE CONTAINERS INCBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- CIRCLE K #2726234Underground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- KANGAROO EXPRESS INC #6234Brownfields · 3.5 mi
- CEMEX CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS FLORIDA LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Asbury Lake'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 Asbury Lake.
Total Sites
411
within ~10 miles of Asbury Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Asbury Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Asbury Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Asbury Lake, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Asbury Lake. 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.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Asbury Lake
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 Asbury Lake average
Your land is one point inside Asbury Lake
Everything above resolves to Asbury Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 11K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clay 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 Asbury Lake Average
Asbury Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Asbury Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Asbury Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Asbury Lake's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Asbury Lake's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Asbury Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Asbury Lake, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Asbury Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Asbury Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Asbury Lake average
How we know this about Asbury Lake
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 Clay 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 Asbury Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Asbury Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Asbury Lake typically lands around Feb 9, 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 Mar 2.
When is the first frost in Asbury Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Asbury Lake typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Asbury Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Asbury Lake sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 22, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Asbury Lake?
The federal record around Asbury Lake is a meaningful one — 411 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (203), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Asbury Lake?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Asbury Lake's scale — its 9b band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Asbury Lake'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 Asbury Lake’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Asbury Lake's own scale — the 10,856 acres it covers and 411 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Asbury Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 411 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Asbury Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Asbury Lake's boundary and the 10,856 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Asbury Lake's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Asbury Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Asbury Lake's 10,856 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- The candidate plant list — Florida's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Florida
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay County
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Asbury Lake's 10,856 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Asbury Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,856 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Asbury Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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