Buckhead Ridge, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — 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 Buckhead Ridge, 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 Buckhead Ridge 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 Buckhead Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Buckhead Ridge — the short answer
Buckhead Ridge, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 326 days between hard freezes, across 897 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Glades County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Glades County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~326
- Glades County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 897 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 Glades County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Buckhead Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Buckhead Ridge's 326-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Buckhead Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Buckhead Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBuckhead Ridge runs about 326 days between hard freezes (read from Glades County, the closest normal to Buckhead Ridge) — 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
MeasuredBuckhead Ridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Buckhead Ridge is in
Buckhead Ridge sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Buckhead Ridge's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Glades County is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Buckhead Ridge
Every plant below cleared Buckhead Ridge's own zone 10a and its 326-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Buckhead Ridge?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. 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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — 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 Buckhead Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Buckhead Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WILLIS BROS CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SUN FOOD OKEECHOBEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BUCKHEAD RIDGE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SOUTH FL WATER MGMT DIST-O'KISSIMMEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- OKEECHOBEE UTILITY AUTHORITYPFAS · 2.1 mi
- LAKE WINDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- BIG O CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- PARRISH SEPTIC TANK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- JIMS AUTO SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- FAST BREAK INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- SOUTH FL WATER MGMT DIST-S 72Underground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ONE STOP EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Buckhead Ridge'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 Buckhead Ridge.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Buckhead Ridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Buckhead Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Buckhead Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Buckhead Ridge, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 115 sites within ~10 miles of Buckhead Ridge. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Buckhead Ridge
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 Buckhead Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Buckhead Ridge
Everything above resolves to Buckhead Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 897 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Glades 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 Buckhead Ridge Average
Buckhead Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Buckhead Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Buckhead Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Buckhead Ridge's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Buckhead Ridge's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Buckhead Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Buckhead Ridge, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Buckhead Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Buckhead Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Buckhead Ridge average
How we know this about Buckhead Ridge
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 Glades 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 Buckhead Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Buckhead Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhead Ridge typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Buckhead Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Buckhead Ridge typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 326 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Buckhead Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Buckhead Ridge sees about 326 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Nov 30, about 291 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Buckhead Ridge?
The federal record around Buckhead Ridge shows 183 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (115), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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 Buckhead Ridge?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Buckhead Ridge's scale — its 10a band and its 326-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Buckhead Ridge'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 Buckhead Ridge’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Buckhead Ridge's own scale — the 897 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Buckhead Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Buckhead Ridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Buckhead Ridge's boundary and the 897 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~326-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Buckhead Ridge sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Buckhead Ridge has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Glades County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Buckhead Ridge's 897 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Glades County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Glades 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 Glades County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Buckhead Ridge's 897 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Buckhead Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 897 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 Buckhead Ridge-wide figureread your own land →