Fort Green, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fort Green, 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 Green 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 Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Fort Green — the short answer
Fort Green, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 331 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 16
- Hardee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~331
- Hardee 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 Hardee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Fort Green's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fort Green's 331-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fort Green
Each reading below is measured for Fort Green itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFort Green runs about 331 days between hard freezes (read from Hardee County, the closest normal to Fort Green) — 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 Green sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Green is in
Fort Green sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fort Green's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardee County.
What Grows in Fort Green
Every plant below cleared Fort Green's own zone 9b and its 331-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fort Green?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 16 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Fort Green
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fort Green. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOSAIC FERTILIZER LLC NORTH PASTURE FACILITYBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- DUKE ENERGY FLORIDA LLC FORT GREEN SOLARBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- CFI-01 SHALLOW 1 NEAR FORT GREEN FLNitrate · 0.7 mi
- OLDCASTLE LAWN & GARDEN INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- MIDULLA GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- MIDULLA GENERATING STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- HARDEE POWER STATIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HARDEE POWER STATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- COUNTRY COOLERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FORT GREEN SNACK SHACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CARGILL INC-PARADISE GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SLAUGHTER MOTOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fort Green'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 Green.
Total Sites
222
within ~10 miles of Fort Green
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fort Green
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fort Green
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fort Green, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 62 sites within ~10 miles of Fort Green. 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 Fort Green
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 Green average
Your land is one point inside Fort Green
Everything above resolves to Fort Green as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hardee 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 Green Average
Fort Green Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Fort Green
- ●One soil character for all of Fort Green
- ●Frost dates read at Fort Green's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fort Green's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fort Green
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fort Green, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fort Green averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fort Green — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fort Green average
How we know this about Fort Green
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 Hardee 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 Green
When does frost risk typically end in Fort Green?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Green typically lands around Jan 19, 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 Feb 9.
When is the first frost in Fort Green?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fort Green typically arrives around Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 2, so the watching starts about Nov 16 — about 331 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fort Green?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fort Green sees about 331 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 2, about 296 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fort Green?
The federal record around Fort Green is a meaningful one — 222 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (102), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.6 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fort Green?
From about Nov 16 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fort Green's scale — its 9b band and its 331-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fort Green'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 Green’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fort Green's own scale — the 2,587 acres it covers and 222 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fort Green's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 222 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fort Green, the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fort Green's boundary and the 2,587 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~331-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fort Green's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fort Green has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hardee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fort Green's 2,587 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardee 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 Hardee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fort Green's 2,587 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fort Green you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,587 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.6 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 Green-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaFort Green sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides