Belle Glade, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Belle Glade, 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 Belle Glade 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 Belle Glade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Belle Glade — the short answer
Belle Glade, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 339 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 10
- 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
- ~339
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Belle Glade's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Belle Glade's 339-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Belle Glade
Each reading below is measured for Belle Glade itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBelle Glade runs about 339 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
MeasuredBelle Glade 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 Belle Glade is in
Belle Glade sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Belle Glade's own centroid rather than borrowed from Palm Beach County.
What Grows in Belle Glade
Every plant below cleared Belle Glade's own zone 10a and its 339-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Belle Glade?
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 10 (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. 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 Belle Glade
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Belle Glade. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE HARDWAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BELLE GLADE STATE AIRPORTSuperfund · 1700 ft
- NANAS PETROLEUM INC #129Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GLADES AG SERVICE, INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IFAS ARECBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BELLE GLADE AIRPORTBrownfields · 1900 ft
- BUREAU OF STATE LAND MGMT-BELLE GLADE AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JOHNSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FPL GLADES SERVICE CENTERBrownfields · 2100 ft
- THREE D MUFFLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- DOC'S GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SAHAR PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Belle Glade'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 Belle Glade.
Total Sites
273
within ~10 miles of Belle Glade
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Belle Glade
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Belle Glade
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Belle Glade, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Belle Glade. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Belle Glade
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 Belle Glade average
Your land is one point inside Belle Glade
Everything above resolves to Belle Glade as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Belle Glade Average
Belle Glade Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Belle Glade
- ●One soil character for all of Belle Glade
- ●Frost dates read at Belle Glade's scale: Jan 10 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Belle Glade's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Belle Glade
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Belle Glade, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Belle Glade averages can't show:
We read public map data around Belle Glade — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Belle Glade average
How we know this about Belle Glade
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 Belle Glade’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 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 Belle Glade
When does frost risk typically end in Belle Glade?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Glade typically lands around Jan 10, 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 Jan 31.
When is the first frost in Belle Glade?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Belle Glade 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 339 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Belle Glade?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Belle Glade sees about 339 frost-free days — roughly Jan 10 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Jan 31 to Dec 1, about 304 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Belle Glade?
The federal record around Belle Glade is a meaningful one — 273 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Belle Glade?
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 Belle Glade's scale — its 10a band and its 339-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Belle Glade'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 Belle Glade’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Belle Glade's own scale — its own ~339-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,486 acres it covers and 273 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Belle Glade's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Belle Glade's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 10 and Dec 15 and the ~339-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 273 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Belle Glade, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Belle Glade's boundary and the 4,486 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~339-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Belle Glade's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Belle Glade's 4,486 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Palm Beach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Belle Glade's 4,486 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Belle Glade you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,486 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Belle Glade-wide figureread your own land →