Cape Coral, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cape Coral, 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 Cape Coral 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 Cape Coral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Cape Coral — the short answer
Cape Coral, Florida: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 68K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 68K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is Cape Coral's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cape Coral's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cape Coral
Each reading below is measured for Cape Coral itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCape Coral sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Cape Coral is in
Cape Coral sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cape Coral's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Cape Coral
Every plant below cleared Cape Coral's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Cape Coral
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cape Coral. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- APAC-FLORIDA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- CHIQUITA FALLSBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #34155Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAL-MART NEIGHBORHOOD MARKET #5453Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- MULLEN TRUCKING WILLIAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROYAL TEE GOLF & COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GREATER PINE ISLAND WATER ASSOCIATIONPFAS · 1.0 mi
- LEE COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICTBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- L - 307Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- SAM'S CLUB #4857Brownfields · 1.2 mi
- RULE MARKETING LLC DBA BONES COFFEE COMPANYBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- ASPEN DENTALBrownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cape Coral'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 Cape Coral.
Total Sites
1,182
within ~10 miles of Cape Coral
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cape Coral
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cape Coral
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 Cape Coral
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 Cape Coral average
Your land is one point inside Cape Coral
Everything above resolves to Cape Coral as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 68K 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 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 Cape Coral Average
Cape Coral Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Cape Coral
- ●One soil character for all of Cape Coral
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cape Coral's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cape Coral
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cape Coral, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cape Coral averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cape Coral — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cape Coral average
How we know this about Cape Coral
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Cape Coral
Is it too late to plant in Cape Coral?
No — Cape Coral has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Cape Coral?
It doesn't — Cape Coral records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Cape Coral?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Cape Coral contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cape Coral?
The federal record around Cape Coral is a meaningful one — 1,182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (546), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Cape Coral's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Cape Coral'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 Cape Coral’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cape Coral's own scale — the 68,001 acres it covers and 1,182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cape Coral's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Cape Coral — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cape Coral, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cape Coral's boundary and the 68,001 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Cape Coral's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cape Coral's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cape Coral's 68,001 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cape Coral's 68,001 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cape Coral you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 68,001 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Cape Coral-wide figureread your own land →