Branford, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Branford, 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 Branford 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 Branford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Branford — the short answer
Branford, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 727 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 13
- Suwannee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Suwannee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Suwannee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 727 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 Suwannee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Branford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Branford's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Branford
Each reading below is measured for Branford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBranford runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Suwannee County, the closest normal to Branford) — 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
MeasuredBranford 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 Branford is in
Branford sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Branford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Suwannee County.
What Grows in Branford
Every plant below cleared Branford's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Branford?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 13 (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. 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 Branford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Branford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUWANNEE CNTY SCHOOL BD-BRANFORDUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- BRANFORD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 450 ft
- SPUR-WALT'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- BRANFORD TRASH SITE LANDFILLBrownfields · 2000 ft
- JIFFY FOOD STORE #303Underground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TIME SAVERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BUSY BEE #47Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TEXACO STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EXXON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- EUGENE MCCALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RUDYS TIRE & LUBEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- S&S #339Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Branford'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 Branford.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Branford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Branford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Branford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Branford, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 72 sites within ~10 miles of Branford. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Branford
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 Branford average
Your land is one point inside Branford
Everything above resolves to Branford as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 727 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Suwannee 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 Branford Average
Branford Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Branford
- ●One soil character for all of Branford
- ●Frost dates read at Branford's scale: Feb 13 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Branford's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Branford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Branford, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Branford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Branford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Branford average
How we know this about Branford
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 Suwannee 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 Branford
When does frost risk typically end in Branford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Branford typically lands around Feb 13, 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 Mar 6.
When is the first frost in Branford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Branford 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 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Branford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Branford sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 13 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 6 to Nov 22, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Branford?
The federal record around Branford shows 124 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (72), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Branford?
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 Branford's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Branford'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 Branford’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Branford's own scale — the 727 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Branford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Branford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Branford's boundary and the 727 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Branford's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Branford has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Suwannee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Branford's 727 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Suwannee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Suwannee 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 Suwannee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Branford's 727 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Branford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 727 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 Branford-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaBranford sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides