DeFuniak Springs, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in DeFuniak Springs, 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 DeFuniak Springs 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 DeFuniak Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
DeFuniak Springs — the short answer
DeFuniak Springs, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Walton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Walton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Walton County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Walton County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is DeFuniak Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against DeFuniak Springs's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in DeFuniak Springs
Each reading below is measured for DeFuniak Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeFuniak Springs runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Walton County, the closest normal to DeFuniak Springs) — 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
MeasuredDeFuniak Springs 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 DeFuniak Springs is in
DeFuniak Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at DeFuniak Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Walton County.
What Grows in DeFuniak Springs
Every plant below cleared DeFuniak Springs's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in DeFuniak Springs?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near DeFuniak Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of DeFuniak Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MURPHY USA #5781Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FLOW PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- CRYSTAL #244Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- CLARY-GODWIN FUNERAL HOMEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- 331 TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FILL-UPS FOOD STORE #3077Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALTON MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- LOWES OF DEFUNIAK SPRINGS FL #2886Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BIG BOSS IV LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PO BOYS GUNS & AMMOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #110Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DEFUNIAK SP WELL NO. 3 FAA0386Nitrate · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from DeFuniak Springs'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 DeFuniak Springs.
Total Sites
111
within ~10 miles of DeFuniak Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of DeFuniak Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of DeFuniak Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around DeFuniak Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 74 sites within ~10 miles of DeFuniak Springs. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 DeFuniak Springs
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 DeFuniak Springs average
Your land is one point inside DeFuniak Springs
Everything above resolves to DeFuniak Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Walton County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 DeFuniak Springs Average
DeFuniak Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across DeFuniak Springs
- ●One soil character for all of DeFuniak Springs
- ●Frost dates read at DeFuniak Springs's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not DeFuniak Springs's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in DeFuniak Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in DeFuniak Springs, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that DeFuniak Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around DeFuniak Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the DeFuniak Springs average
How we know this about DeFuniak Springs
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 at Walton 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 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 DeFuniak Springs
When does frost risk typically end in DeFuniak Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in DeFuniak Springs typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in DeFuniak Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in DeFuniak Springs typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in DeFuniak Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, DeFuniak Springs sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 23, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in DeFuniak Springs?
The federal record around DeFuniak Springs shows 111 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (74), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 DeFuniak Springs?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at DeFuniak Springs's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of DeFuniak Springs'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 DeFuniak Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at DeFuniak Springs's own scale — the 9,094 acres it covers and 111 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- DeFuniak Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 111 documented contamination sites on the federal record near DeFuniak Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- DeFuniak Springs's boundary and the 9,094 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at DeFuniak Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — DeFuniak Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Walton County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so DeFuniak Springs's 9,094 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Walton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Walton 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 Walton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among DeFuniak Springs's 9,094 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of DeFuniak Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,094 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 DeFuniak Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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