Broward County, in Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring
Broward County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Broward County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Broward County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Broward County — the short answer
Broward County, Florida: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 770K acres.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, county record
- County area
- 770K 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 Broward County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broward County's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Broward County
Across a year, Broward County accumulates about 9,569 growing degree days above 50°F, about 2,184 more than the middle Florida county — ahead of every other Florida county. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 0 hours below 45°F, 36 fewer than the Florida middle of 36. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Broward County
Across Broward County, the ground is predominantly Histosols, where Shark Valley, Macks Camp, and Hallandale are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally very poorly drained with a fine sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–7.0, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A/D soils.
Soil order
Histosols
Drainage
Very poorly drained
Hydric soils
85%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Broward County
The USDA soil survey maps 55% of Broward County as very poorly drained — but another 37% drains differently: 26% poorly drained, 6% somewhat poorly drained.
Shark Valley is the most extensive named soil at 22% of mapped acres, then Macks Camp (11%) and Hallandale (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Broward County
Each reading below is measured for Broward County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Broward County are very poorly drained, in hydrologic group A/D — ground that sheds water slowly.
Beds can stay saturated for days after heavy rain, and the roots of most vegetables, berries, and fruit trees suffocate or rot in soil that never drains.
Raised beds or mounded rows lift roots above the wet zone; choose water-tolerant crops for the lowest spots.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Broward County runs about pH 5.3–7.0, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBroward County records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 30-year station record — 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
MeasuredBroward County 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 Broward County is in
Broward County sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Broward County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Broward County's own USDA zone 10b and its own 365-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile.
Documented around Broward County
- monarch butterfly181 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Broward County
USGS estimates 563 lb of Methomyl on Broward County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (356 lb) and Glyphosate (343 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Broward County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Broward County — 5,352 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 42 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Broward County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Broward County
Closest first, across Broward County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- G -2312Nitrate · 2.7 mi
- GS - 1Nitrate · 3.1 mi
- G -2319Nitrate · 3.3 mi
- G - 220Nitrate · 4.0 mi
- QUALITY TRANSPORTATION SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #21Brownfields · 5.2 mi
- G -2373Nitrate · 5.3 mi
- G -2373ANitrate · 5.3 mi
- SUNSHINE EXXON WESTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- SHELL-FIRST COAST ENERGY #1832Underground Storage Tanks · 7.3 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #583Brownfields · 7.3 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5083Brownfields · 7.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broward County'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 Broward County.
Severity Distribution
across Broward County
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 Broward County
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 Broward County average
Your land is one point inside Broward County
Everything above resolves to Broward County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 770K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Broward County Average
Broward County Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Broward County
- ●One soil character for all of Broward County
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broward County's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Broward County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broward County, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broward County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broward County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broward County average
How we know this about Broward County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Broward County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Broward County
Is it too late to plant in Broward County?
No — Broward County 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 Broward County?
It doesn't — Broward County 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 Broward County?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Broward County 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 Broward County?
The federal record around Broward County runs heavier than most — 5,352 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,524), the nearest Nitrate record about 2.7 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.
Everything above is measured at Broward County's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Broward County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Florida's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Broward County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Broward County's own scale — a 30-year record with no killing freeze in it, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 5,352 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broward County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in Broward County's own 30-year station record — a year-round growing season, measured here rather than inheritedNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Broward CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 5,352 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Nitrate record about 2.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Broward County's boundary and the 769,908 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10b and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Broward County sitting wholly inside the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Broward County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Broward County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Florida grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Florida
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Broward County — the ~365 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broward County's 769,908 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 5,352 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Broward Countyread your own land →