Brandon, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brandon, 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 Brandon 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 Brandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brandon — the short answer
Brandon, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 337 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~337
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 9b is Brandon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brandon's 337-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brandon
Each reading below is measured for Brandon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrandon runs about 337 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
MeasuredBrandon 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 Brandon is in
Brandon sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brandon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Brandon
Every plant below cleared Brandon's own zone 9b and its 337-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brandon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 24 — 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 Brandon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brandon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #532Brownfields · 750 ft
- UNIVERSAL JEWELRY PAWN & GUN RANGEBrownfields · 800 ft
- LIVELYS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 1000 ft
- PONDEROSA STEAK HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- PARTRIDGE WELL NEAR BRANDON FLNitrate · 1300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #2825Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CHEVRON #48115Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BRANDON CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GAS WORLD #9Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- AMOCO #325-KINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AMOCO #239-BRANDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- 7-ELEVEN STORE #38090Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brandon'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 Brandon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brandon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brandon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brandon, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Brandon. 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 Brandon
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 Brandon average
Your land is one point inside Brandon
Everything above resolves to Brandon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Brandon Average
Brandon Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Brandon
- ●One soil character for all of Brandon
- ●Frost dates read at Brandon's scale: Jan 21 to Dec 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brandon's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brandon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brandon, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brandon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brandon average
How we know this about Brandon
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 Brandon’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 Brandon
When does frost risk typically end in Brandon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brandon typically lands around Jan 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Brandon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brandon typically arrives around Dec 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 10, so the watching starts about Nov 24 — about 337 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brandon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brandon sees about 337 frost-free days — roughly Jan 21 through Dec 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 11 to Dec 10, about 302 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brandon?
The federal record around Brandon runs heavier than most — 2,438 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,203), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Brandon?
From about Nov 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brandon's scale — its 9b band and its 337-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brandon'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 Brandon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brandon's own scale — its own ~337-day season between 28°F freezes, the 21,206 acres it covers and 2,438 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brandon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brandon's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 21 and Dec 24 and the ~337-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,438 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brandon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brandon's boundary and the 21,206 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~337-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brandon's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brandon's 21,206 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsborough County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brandon's 21,206 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brandon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,206 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Brandon-wide figureread your own land →
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