Brent, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Brent, 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 Brent 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 Brent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brent — the short answer
Brent, 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 Brent's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brent's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brent
Each reading below is measured for Brent itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBrent runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Escambia County, the closest normal to Brent) — 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
MeasuredBrent 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 Brent is in
Brent sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brent'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 Brent
Every plant below cleared Brent'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 Brent?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Brent
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Brent, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Brent
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brent. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COCKRELL BODY SHOP OF PENSACOLABrownfields · 600 ft
- WHIBBS VINCE PONTIAC BUICK GMC CADILLACUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CAR CITY AUTO ELECTRICBrownfields · 800 ft
- SANDY SANSING NISSAN - BMWBrownfields · 800 ft
- MATCHETT PAINT & BODY SHOP INCBrownfields · 850 ft
- PENSACOLA CHRYSLER PLYMOUTH INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #82Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- SANDY SANSING MAZDABrownfields · 1200 ft
- MR & R TRUCKING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WARD INTERNATIONAL TRUCKS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- D&F ROOFING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WARD INTERNATIONALBrownfields · 1400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brent'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 Brent.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brent
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brent
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brent, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 29 sites within ~10 miles of Brent. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Brent
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 Brent average
Your land is one point inside Brent
Everything above resolves to Brent 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 Brent Average
Brent Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Brent
- ●One soil character for all of Brent
- ●Frost dates read at Brent's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brent's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brent
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brent, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brent averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brent — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brent average
How we know this about Brent
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 Brent
When does frost risk typically end in Brent?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brent 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 Brent?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brent 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 Brent?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brent 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 Brent?
The federal record around Brent runs heavier than most — 1,667 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (837), 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 Brent?
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 Brent's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brent'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 Brent’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brent's own scale — the 6,541 acres it covers and 1,667 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brent's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,667 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brent, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brent's boundary and the 6,541 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brent 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 Brentlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Brent 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 Brent's 6,541 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 Brent's 6,541 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brent you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,541 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 Brent-wide figureread your own land →