East Lake, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Lake, 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 East Lake 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 East Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Lake — the short answer
East Lake, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 18K 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 10a is East Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Lake'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 East Lake
Each reading below is measured for East Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredEast Lake sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 East Lake is in
East Lake sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pinellas County.
What Grows in East Lake
Every plant below cleared East Lake's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near East Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #33048Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TIRE KINGDOM #6218Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- EASTLAKE HIGH SCHOOL PARKING LOTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PINELLAS CNTY SCHOOL BD-EAST LAKE H SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LANSBROOK GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #497Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- PINELLAS COUNTY KELLER T PBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- PINELLAS CNTY-KELLER PUMPING STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- G MICHAEL NAUERTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- RALLY - EAST LAKE CAR WASHUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #20099Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Lake'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 East Lake.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Lake, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 540 sites within ~10 miles of East Lake. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in East Lake
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 East Lake average
Your land is one point inside East Lake
Everything above resolves to East Lake as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 18K 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 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 East Lake Average
East Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across East Lake
- ●One soil character for all of East Lake
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Lake's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Lake, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Lake average
How we know this about East Lake
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 East Lake
Is it too late to plant in East Lake?
No — East Lake 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 East Lake?
It doesn't — East Lake 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 East Lake?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for East Lake 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 East Lake?
The federal record around East Lake is a meaningful one — 1,535 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (541), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at East Lake's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of East Lake'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 East Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at East Lake's own scale — the 18,333 acres it covers and 1,535 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering East Lake — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,535 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Lake's boundary and the 18,333 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear East Lake's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Lake's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so East Lake's 18,333 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pinellas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pinellas 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 Pinellas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Lake's 18,333 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,333 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 East Lake-wide figureread your own land →
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