Black Hammock, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Black Hammock, 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 Black Hammock 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 Black Hammock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Black Hammock — the short answer
Black Hammock, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Seminole County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Seminole 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 Seminole County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Black Hammock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Black Hammock's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Black Hammock
Each reading below is measured for Black Hammock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBlack Hammock runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Seminole County, the closest normal to Black Hammock) — 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
MeasuredBlack Hammock 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 Black Hammock is in
Black Hammock sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Black Hammock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Seminole County.
What Grows in Black Hammock
Every plant below cleared Black Hammock's own zone 9b and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Black Hammock?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — 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 Black Hammock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Black Hammock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SIGNATURE NAIL SYSTEMSBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- GATEWAY GARDENS ASSOCIATESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- HAYMAN SAFE COMPANYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- WHEELER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- EAGLE BAY CABINET DOORS & DRAWERSBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- OVIEDO ANIMAL HOSPITALBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- TONY & MOH SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SHELL BROADWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MIMS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DIAL SEPTIC TANK SRVCS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- OVIEDO CITY-FLEET MAINTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- JACKSON HEIGHTS MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Black Hammock'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 Black Hammock.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Black Hammock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Black Hammock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Black Hammock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Black Hammock — Superfund (13 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Black Hammock
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 Black Hammock average
Your land is one point inside Black Hammock
Everything above resolves to Black Hammock as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Seminole 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 Black Hammock Average
Black Hammock Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Black Hammock
- ●One soil character for all of Black Hammock
- ●Frost dates read at Black Hammock's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Black Hammock's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Black Hammock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Black Hammock, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Black Hammock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Black Hammock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Black Hammock average
How we know this about Black Hammock
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 Seminole 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 Black Hammock
When does frost risk typically end in Black Hammock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Black Hammock typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Black Hammock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Black Hammock typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Black Hammock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Black Hammock sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 4, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Black Hammock?
The federal record around Black Hammock is a meaningful one — 719 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (405), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Black Hammock?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Black Hammock's scale — its 9b band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Black Hammock'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 Black Hammock’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Black Hammock's own scale — the 7,121 acres it covers and 719 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Black Hammock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 719 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Black Hammock, the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Black Hammock's boundary and the 7,121 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Black Hammock's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Black Hammock has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Seminole County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Black Hammock's 7,121 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Seminole County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Seminole 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 Seminole County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Black Hammock's 7,121 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Black Hammock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,121 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.9 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 Black Hammock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaBlack Hammock sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides