Duck Key, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Duck Key, 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 Duck Key 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 Duck Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Duck Key — the short answer
Duck Key, Florida: USDA zone 11b, no 28°F killing freeze in Monroe County’s record — the season is year-round, across 383 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 11b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- Monroe County normal — NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 383 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — Monroe County’s 30-year record, the closest to this town, contains no 28°F killing freeze — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 11b is Duck Key's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Duck Key'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 Duck Key
Each reading below is measured for Duck Key itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDuck Key has no station of its own, and Monroe County’s 30-year record — the closest to it — carries no 28°F killing freeze at all — 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
MeasuredDuck Key sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b.
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 Duck Key is in
Duck Key sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Duck Key's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Duck Key
Every plant below cleared Duck Key's own zone 11b and its 365-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Duck Key
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Duck Key. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUCK KEY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- HAWKS CAY MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DUCK KEY MARINABrownfields · 2300 ft
- COCONUT PALMASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CORAL KEY FISHERIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- GRASSY KEY MARINA OF MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GRASSY KEY MARINABrownfields · 2.3 mi
- OUTDOOR RESORT MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- WILD BILLSUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- LONG KEY STATE RECREATION AREABrownfields · 6.2 mi
- MONROE COUNTY LONG KEY LANDFILLBrownfields · 6.6 mi
- DRIFTWOOD MARINA & STORAGE, INC.Brownfields · 6.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Duck Key'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 Duck Key.
Total Sites
50
within ~10 miles of Duck Key
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Duck Key
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Duck Key
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 Duck Key
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 Duck Key average
Your land is one point inside Duck Key
Everything above resolves to Duck Key as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 383 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Monroe 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 Duck Key Average
Duck Key Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b, averaged across Duck Key
- ●One soil character for all of Duck Key
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Duck Key's 11b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Duck Key
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Duck Key, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Duck Key averages can't show:
We read public map data around Duck Key — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Duck Key average
How we know this about Duck Key
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 Monroe 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 Duck Key
Is it too late to plant in Duck Key?
No — Duck Key has no station of its own, and Monroe County's 30-year record, the closest to it, holds no 28°F killing freeze, 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 Duck Key?
It doesn't — Duck Key has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Monroe County, the nearest to it, carries no 28°F killing freeze at all, 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 Duck Key?
Year-round — Duck Key has no station of its own, and the 1991–2020 record for Monroe County, the closest to it, 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 Duck Key?
The federal record around Duck Key shows 50 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (26), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
Everything above is measured at Duck Key's scale — its 11b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Duck Key'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 Duck Key’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Duck Key's own scale — the 383 acres it covers and 50 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Duck Key's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 50 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Duck Key, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Duck Key's boundary and the 383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 11b and a ~365-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Duck Key's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The frost finding — Duck Key has no station of its own, and its county's 30-year record contains no 28°F killing freeze at allfrom Monroe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Duck Key's 383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Duck Key's 383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Duck Key you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Duck Key-wide figureread your own land →