Gainesville, 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.
These conditions suit artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gainesville, 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 Gainesville 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 Gainesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gainesville — the short answer
Gainesville, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 41K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 7
- Alachua County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Alachua County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~306
- Alachua County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 41K 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 Alachua County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gainesville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gainesville's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gainesville
Each reading below is measured for Gainesville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGainesville runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Alachua County, the closest normal to Gainesville) — 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
MeasuredGainesville 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 Gainesville is in
Gainesville sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gainesville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alachua County.
What Grows in Gainesville
Every plant below cleared Gainesville's own zone 9a and its 306-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gainesville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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 Gainesville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gainesville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SEARS ROEBUCK & CO-AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WAL-MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SHELL-FIRST COAST ENERGY #3055Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MOTT TIRE & BRAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- B A M O OAK TERR MOBILE HOME PARKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- LOWES OF NE GAINESVILLE FL #2365Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- UNIV OF FL-WRUF RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WINN-DIXIE STORE #2564Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- GATE #137Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAWA #5384Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- POOLE ROOFING & SHEET METALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WESTGATE MOBILE MANOR SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gainesville'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 Gainesville.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gainesville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gainesville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gainesville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Gainesville. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gainesville
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 Gainesville average
Your land is one point inside Gainesville
Everything above resolves to Gainesville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 41K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Alachua County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Gainesville Average
Gainesville Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gainesville
- ●One soil character for all of Gainesville
- ●Frost dates read at Gainesville's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gainesville's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gainesville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gainesville, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gainesville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gainesville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gainesville average
How we know this about Gainesville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Alachua 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Gainesville
When does frost risk typically end in Gainesville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gainesville typically lands around Feb 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Gainesville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gainesville typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 306 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gainesville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gainesville sees about 306 frost-free days — roughly Feb 7 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 28 to Nov 26, about 271 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gainesville?
The federal record around Gainesville is a meaningful one — 760 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (431), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Gainesville?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gainesville's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gainesville'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 Gainesville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gainesville's own scale — the 40,967 acres it covers and 760 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gainesville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 760 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gainesville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gainesville's boundary and the 40,967 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~306-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gainesville's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gainesville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Alachua County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gainesville's 40,967 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Alachua County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Alachua 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 Alachua County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gainesville's 40,967 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gainesville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 40,967 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 Gainesville-wide figureread your own land →
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