Fort Braden, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
The conditions favor artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Braden, 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 Fort Braden 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 Fort Braden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Braden — the short answer
Fort Braden, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 8
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Leon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Leon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fort Braden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Braden's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Braden
Each reading below is measured for Fort Braden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Braden runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Leon County, the closest normal to Fort Braden) — 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
MeasuredFort Braden 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 Fort Braden is in
Fort Braden sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Braden's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Leon County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Fort Braden
Every plant below cleared Fort Braden's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Braden?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 8 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Fort Braden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Braden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EXPRESS LANE #706 - FL0017Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- RUTLANDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HARRISON GROCERY & BAITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FL GAME & FRESH WATER FISH COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SUBER-WEAVER INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- GAINEYS TALQUIN LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- SAVAGE PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- COUNTRY CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- COOKS LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- JACKSONS TALQUIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- TALQUIN GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- SAMS WEST SIDE GROCERY #100771Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Braden'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 Fort Braden.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Fort Braden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Braden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Braden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Braden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 67 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Braden. 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 Fort Braden
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 Fort Braden average
Your land is one point inside Fort Braden
Everything above resolves to Fort Braden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Leon 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 Fort Braden Average
Fort Braden Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fort Braden
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Braden
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Braden's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Braden's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Braden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Braden, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Braden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Braden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Braden average
How we know this about Fort Braden
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 Leon 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 Fort Braden
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Braden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Braden typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Fort Braden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Braden typically arrives around Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 24, so the watching starts about Nov 8 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Braden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Braden sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 24, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Braden?
The federal record around Fort Braden shows 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), 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 Fort Braden?
From about Nov 8 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Braden's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Braden'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 Fort Braden’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Braden's own scale — the 2,781 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Braden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Braden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Braden's boundary and the 2,781 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Fort Braden sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Braden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Leon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Braden's 2,781 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leon 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 Leon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Braden's 2,781 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Braden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,781 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 Fort Braden-wide figureread your own land →