Ave Maria, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Ave Maria, 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 Ave Maria 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 Ave Maria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ave Maria — the short answer
Ave Maria, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 327 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~327
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 7K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Ave Maria's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ave Maria's 327-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ave Maria
Each reading below is measured for Ave Maria itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAve Maria runs about 327 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredAve Maria 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 Ave Maria is in
Ave Maria sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ave Maria's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Collier County is mostly Southern Florida Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Ave Maria
Every plant below cleared Ave Maria's own zone 10a and its 327-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ave Maria?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Ave Maria
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ave Maria. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOBIL-AVE MARIA # 696Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Ave Maria SA Well 2 AAJ9359Nitrate · 500 ft
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1252Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- BARRON COLLIER COUNTY - SILVER STRAND FARMBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CEMEX AVE MARIAToxics Release Inventory · 1.3 mi
- AG MART PRODUCE INCBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- BARRON COLLIER-SILVER STRAND SOD DIVISIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ARTHREX MANUFACTURING INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- ARTHREX MANUFACTURING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- ARTHREX MANUFACTURINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ARTHREX INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- ARTHREX INCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ave Maria'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 Ave Maria.
Total Sites
263
within ~10 miles of Ave Maria
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ave Maria
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ave Maria
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ave Maria, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 166 sites within ~10 miles of Ave Maria. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Ave Maria
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 Ave Maria average
Your land is one point inside Ave Maria
Everything above resolves to Ave Maria as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K acres. 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 Ave Maria Average
Ave Maria Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Ave Maria
- ●One soil character for all of Ave Maria
- ●Frost dates read at Ave Maria's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ave Maria's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ave Maria
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ave Maria, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ave Maria averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ave Maria — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ave Maria average
How we know this about Ave Maria
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 Ave Maria’s own record; 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 Ave Maria
When does frost risk typically end in Ave Maria?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ave Maria typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Ave Maria?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ave Maria typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 327 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ave Maria?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ave Maria sees about 327 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 1, about 292 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ave Maria?
The federal record around Ave Maria is a meaningful one — 263 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (166), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ave Maria?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ave Maria's scale — its 10a band and its 327-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ave Maria'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 Ave Maria’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ave Maria's own scale — its own ~327-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,748 acres it covers and 263 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ave Maria's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ave Maria's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 22 and Dec 15 and the ~327-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 263 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ave Maria, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ave Maria's boundary and the 6,748 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~327-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Ave Maria sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ave Maria's 6,748 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Collier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Collier 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 Collier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ave Maria's 6,748 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ave Maria you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,748 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Ave Maria-wide figureread your own land →