Bear Creek, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bear Creek, 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 Bear Creek 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 Bear Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bear Creek — the short answer
Bear Creek, Florida: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 248 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 248 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is Bear Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bear Creek's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bear Creek
Each reading below is measured for Bear Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBear Creek sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Bear Creek is in
Bear Creek sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bear Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pinellas County.
What Grows in Bear Creek
Every plant below cleared Bear Creek's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Bear Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bear Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- THE SALVATION ARMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CHEVRON #527Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BERT SMITH OLDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BAY ISLAND CONDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #0139Brownfields · 1700 ft
- KMART #7522Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WINN-DIXIE STORES #2411Brownfields · 1800 ft
- WALMART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #3161Brownfields · 1900 ft
- SOUTH PASADENA CITY-FIRE DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- RALLY #133Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- PALMS CLEANERSBrownfields · 2400 ft
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1348Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bear Creek'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 Bear Creek.
Total Sites
2,706
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bear Creek
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 Bear Creek
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 Bear Creek average
Your land is one point inside Bear Creek
Everything above resolves to Bear Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 248 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 Bear Creek Average
Bear Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Bear Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Bear Creek
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bear Creek's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bear Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bear Creek, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bear Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bear Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bear Creek average
How we know this about Bear Creek
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Bear Creek
Is it too late to plant in Bear Creek?
No — Bear Creek has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Bear Creek?
It doesn't — Bear Creek records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Bear Creek?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Bear Creek contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bear Creek?
The federal record around Bear Creek is a meaningful one — 2,706 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,217), 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.
Everything above is measured at Bear Creek's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Bear Creek'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 Bear Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bear Creek's own scale — the 248 acres it covers and 2,706 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bear Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Bear Creek — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 2,706 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bear Creek, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bear Creek's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Bear Creek's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bear Creek's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bear Creek's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pinellas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pinellas 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 Pinellas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bear Creek's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bear Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 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 Bear Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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