Brooksville, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Brooksville, 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 Brooksville 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 Brooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooksville — the short answer
Brooksville, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City 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 Hernando County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Brooksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooksville's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooksville
Each reading below is measured for Brooksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBrooksville runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Hernando County, the closest normal to Brooksville) — 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
MeasuredBrooksville 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 Brooksville is in
Brooksville sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brooksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hernando County.
What Grows in Brooksville
Every plant below cleared Brooksville's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brooksville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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 Brooksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PTL TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- BP-RIDGE MANORUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- INVESTMENT GROUP PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- VFW AUTO SALVAGEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- SOUTHERN HILLS PLANTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SPRINGSTEAD PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MINNIES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AUTONATION FORD BROOKSVILLEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- LOWES OF BROOKSVILLE FL #1827Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- UPS-BROOKSVILLEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- THUNDER BAY ENTERPRISES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MURPHY USA #6845Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooksville'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 Brooksville.
Total Sites
385
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Brooksville
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 Brooksville average
Your land is one point inside Brooksville
Everything above resolves to Brooksville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hernando County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Brooksville Average
Brooksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Brooksville
- ●One soil character for all of Brooksville
- ●Frost dates read at Brooksville's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooksville's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooksville, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooksville average
How we know this about Brooksville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Hernando 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Brooksville
When does frost risk typically end in Brooksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooksville typically lands around Feb 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Brooksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooksville typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooksville sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Dec 6, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooksville?
The federal record around Brooksville is a meaningful one — 385 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (219), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Brooksville?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brooksville's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooksville'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 Brooksville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Brooksville's own scale — the 7,158 acres it covers and 385 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 385 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooksville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooksville's boundary and the 7,158 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brooksville's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Brooksville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hernando County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brooksville's 7,158 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hernando County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hernando 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 Hernando County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooksville's 7,158 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,158 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Brooksville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaBrooksville sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides