Bellview, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, 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 Bellview, 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 Bellview 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 Bellview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bellview — the short answer
Bellview, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Escambia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bellview's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bellview's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bellview
Each reading below is measured for Bellview itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBellview runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Escambia County, the closest normal to Bellview) — 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
MeasuredBellview 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 Bellview is in
Bellview sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bellview's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Escambia County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bellview
Every plant below cleared Bellview's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bellview?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Bellview
Spotted lanternfly documented 15 miles from Bellview, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bellview
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bellview. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BELLVIEW JR.HIGH SCHOOLNitrate · 1300 ft
- EMERALD COAST MARINE INCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- MARKS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SPEEDY TRANSMISSIONSBrownfields · 2100 ft
- EXPREZIT! #741Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- FLORIDA DEP -SIS - SISLEY SQUARE SHOPPING CENTERBrownfields · 2300 ft
- FLORIDA DEP DSCP D249 #179800747Brownfields · 2300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5180Brownfields · 2600 ft
- PEN AIR DATA PROCESSING CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BP FOOD MART #45Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EXPREZIT! #758Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- VICTORY MOTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bellview'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 Bellview.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bellview
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bellview
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bellview, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 30 sites within ~10 miles of Bellview. 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 Bellview
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 Bellview average
Your land is one point inside Bellview
Everything above resolves to Bellview as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Escambia 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 Bellview Average
Bellview Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bellview
- ●One soil character for all of Bellview
- ●Frost dates read at Bellview's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bellview's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bellview
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bellview, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bellview averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bellview — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bellview average
How we know this about Bellview
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 Escambia 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 Bellview
When does frost risk typically end in Bellview?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bellview typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Bellview?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bellview 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 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bellview?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bellview sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bellview?
The federal record around Bellview runs heavier than most — 1,693 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (826), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Bellview?
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 Bellview's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bellview'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 Bellview’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bellview's own scale — the 7,454 acres it covers and 1,693 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bellview's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,693 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bellview, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bellview's boundary and the 7,454 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bellview sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bellviewlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bellview has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Escambia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bellview's 7,454 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Escambia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Escambia 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 Escambia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bellview's 7,454 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bellview you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,454 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Bellview-wide figureread your own land →