Crescent Beach, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crescent Beach, 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 Crescent Beach 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 Crescent Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Crescent Beach — the short answer
Crescent Beach, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 920 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 920 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 St. Johns County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Crescent Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crescent Beach's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crescent Beach
Each reading below is measured for Crescent Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrescent Beach runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from St. Johns County, the closest normal to Crescent Beach) — 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
MeasuredCrescent Beach 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 Crescent Beach is in
Crescent Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crescent Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Johns County.
What Grows in Crescent Beach
Every plant below cleared Crescent Beach's own zone 9b and its 329-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crescent Beach?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 25 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Crescent Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crescent Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CIRCLE K #2721176Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- KANGAROO EXPRESS INC #1043Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2721043Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- THE PANTRY #2298Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA - CENTER FOR MARINE STUDIESBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- GEORGIA AQUARIUM'S CONSERVATION FIELD STATIONBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- MARINELAND DOLPHIN ADVENTUREBrownfields · 4.4 mi
- MARINELAND INC-FISH HOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- MARINE PARK OF FLAGLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- CIRCLE K #2722291Underground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- OCEAN GROVE RV SALES INC OF ST AUGUSTINEBrownfields · 4.7 mi
- LIL CHAMP FOOD STORE #144Underground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crescent Beach'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 Crescent Beach.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Crescent Beach
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crescent Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crescent Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crescent Beach, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Crescent Beach. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Crescent Beach
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 Crescent Beach average
Your land is one point inside Crescent Beach
Everything above resolves to Crescent Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 920 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Johns 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 Crescent Beach Average
Crescent Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Crescent Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Crescent Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Crescent Beach's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crescent Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crescent Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crescent Beach, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crescent Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crescent Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crescent Beach average
How we know this about Crescent Beach
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 St. Johns 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 Crescent Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Crescent Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent Beach typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Crescent Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crescent Beach 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 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crescent Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crescent Beach sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 6, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crescent Beach?
The federal record around Crescent Beach shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Crescent Beach?
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 Crescent Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crescent Beach'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 Crescent Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crescent Beach's own scale — the 920 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crescent Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crescent Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crescent Beach's boundary and the 920 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~329-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Crescent Beach's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crescent Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Johns County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crescent Beach's 920 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Johns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Johns 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 St. Johns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crescent Beach's 920 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crescent Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 920 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.1 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 Crescent Beach-wide figureread your own land →