Chaires, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Chaires, 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 Chaires 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 Chaires — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Chaires — the short answer
Chaires, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Leon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Chaires's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Chaires's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Chaires
Each reading below is measured for Chaires itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsChaires runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Leon County, the closest normal to Chaires) — 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
MeasuredChaires 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 Chaires is in
Chaires sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Chaires's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leon County.
What Grows in Chaires
Every plant below cleared Chaires'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 Chaires?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Chaires
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Chaires. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SMITH'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TWIN PINES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- APALACHEE CENTREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ALFORD JAMESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WINTERLE & SON INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PAN FOOD STORE #1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- PARKWAY EASTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- BRADFORDVILLE REGIONAL W/SPFAS · 2.0 mi
- MEADOWS-AT-WOODRUNPFAS · 2.0 mi
- CAPITOLA JOYMARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MAS1-4 4IN WELLNitrate · 2.6 mi
- COOKSEY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Chaires'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 Chaires.
Total Sites
599
within ~10 miles of Chaires
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Chaires
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Chaires
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 Chaires
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 Chaires average
Your land is one point inside Chaires
Everything above resolves to Chaires as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Leon 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 Chaires Average
Chaires Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Chaires
- ●One soil character for all of Chaires
- ●Frost dates read at Chaires's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Chaires's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Chaires
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Chaires, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Chaires averages can't show:
We read public map data around Chaires — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Chaires average
How we know this about Chaires
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 Leon 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 Chaires
When does frost risk typically end in Chaires?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Chaires typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Chaires?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Chaires typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Chaires?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Chaires sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 24, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Chaires?
The federal record around Chaires is a meaningful one — 599 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (350), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Chaires?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Chaires's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Chaires'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 Chaires’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Chaires's own scale — the 1,452 acres it covers and 599 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Chaires's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 599 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Chaires, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Chaires's boundary and the 1,452 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 Chaires's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Chaires has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Leon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Chaires's 1,452 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leon 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 Leon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Chaires's 1,452 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Chaires you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,452 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Chaires-wide figureread your own land →