Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Florida Gulf Coast University, 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 Florida Gulf Coast University 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 Florida Gulf Coast University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Florida Gulf Coast University — the short answer
Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Florida Gulf Coast University's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Florida Gulf Coast University'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 Florida Gulf Coast University
Each reading below is measured for Florida Gulf Coast University itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredFlorida Gulf Coast University 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 Florida Gulf Coast University is in
Florida Gulf Coast University sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Florida Gulf Coast University's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Lee County is mostly Southern Coastal Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Florida Gulf Coast University
Every plant below cleared Florida Gulf Coast University's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Florida Gulf Coast University
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Florida Gulf Coast University. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FLORIDA GULF COAST UNIVERSITYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- CEMEX-FT MYERS QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- THREE OAKS WWTFBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- L - 739Nitrate · 1.8 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #17148Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- TARGET STORE T2059Brownfields · 1.8 mi
- LCU PINEWOODS WTPBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- 7-ELEVEN STORE#37172Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FURNITURE BY CHARLESBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- PORTRAIT INNOVATIONSBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- WINN-DIXIE STORES #2493Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- COSTCO WHOLESALE #621Brownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Florida Gulf Coast University'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 Florida Gulf Coast University.
Total Sites
648
within ~10 miles of Florida Gulf Coast University
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Florida Gulf Coast University
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Florida Gulf Coast University
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Florida Gulf Coast University, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 348 sites within ~10 miles of Florida Gulf Coast University. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Florida Gulf Coast University
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 Florida Gulf Coast University average
Your land is one point inside Florida Gulf Coast University
Everything above resolves to Florida Gulf Coast University as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Florida Gulf Coast University Average
Florida Gulf Coast University Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Florida Gulf Coast University
- ●One soil character for all of Florida Gulf Coast University
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Florida Gulf Coast University's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Florida Gulf Coast University
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Florida Gulf Coast University averages can't show:
We read public map data around Florida Gulf Coast University — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Florida Gulf Coast University average
How we know this about Florida Gulf Coast University
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 Florida Gulf Coast University
Is it too late to plant in Florida Gulf Coast University?
No — Florida Gulf Coast University 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 Florida Gulf Coast University?
It doesn't — Florida Gulf Coast University 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 Florida Gulf Coast University?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Florida Gulf Coast University 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 Florida Gulf Coast University?
The federal record around Florida Gulf Coast University is a meaningful one — 648 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (348), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Florida Gulf Coast University's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Florida Gulf Coast University'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 Florida Gulf Coast University’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Florida Gulf Coast University's own scale — the 1,543 acres it covers and 648 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Florida Gulf Coast University's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Florida Gulf Coast University — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 648 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Florida Gulf Coast University, the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Florida Gulf Coast University's boundary and the 1,543 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Florida Gulf Coast University's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Florida Gulf Coast University sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Florida Gulf Coast University's 1,543 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Florida Gulf Coast University's 1,543 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Florida Gulf Coast University you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,543 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.7 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 Florida Gulf Coast University-wide figureread your own land →