Glen St. Mary, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Glen St. Mary, 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 Glen St. Mary 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 Glen St. Mary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glen St. Mary — the short answer
Glen St. Mary, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 293 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 14
- Baker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 9
- Baker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Baker County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 293 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 Baker County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Glen St. Mary's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glen St. Mary's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glen St. Mary
Each reading below is measured for Glen St. Mary itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGlen St. Mary runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Baker County, the closest normal to Glen St. Mary) — 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
MeasuredGlen St. Mary 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 Glen St. Mary is in
Glen St. Mary sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glen St. Mary's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baker County.
What Grows in Glen St. Mary
Every plant below cleared Glen St. Mary's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glen St. Mary?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Glen St. Mary
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glen St. Mary. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRASERS FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 75 ft
- C&W SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- KWIK STOP FOOD STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- GLEN SAINT MARY SUPER MRKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- NORTHEAST FL TELEPHONE CO INC-PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- A L RHODENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DAVIS DIESEL SERVICE-JIMMYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXXON STATION-GLEN ST MARYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- AUTO & TRUCK CLINICBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CHAMPION INTL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MACCLENNY CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- JIMMYS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glen St. Mary'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 Glen St. Mary.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Glen St. Mary
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glen St. Mary
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glen St. Mary
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glen St. Mary, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 81 sites within ~10 miles of Glen St. Mary. 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 Glen St. Mary
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 Glen St. Mary average
Your land is one point inside Glen St. Mary
Everything above resolves to Glen St. Mary as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 293 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baker 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 Glen St. Mary Average
Glen St. Mary Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Glen St. Mary
- ●One soil character for all of Glen St. Mary
- ●Frost dates read at Glen St. Mary's scale: Feb 14 to Dec 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glen St. Mary's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glen St. Mary
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glen St. Mary, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glen St. Mary averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glen St. Mary — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glen St. Mary average
How we know this about Glen St. Mary
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 Baker 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 Glen St. Mary
When does frost risk typically end in Glen St. Mary?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glen St. Mary typically lands around Feb 14, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Glen St. Mary?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glen St. Mary typically arrives around Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 25, so the watching starts about Nov 9 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glen St. Mary?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glen St. Mary sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 14 through Dec 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 7 to Nov 25, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glen St. Mary?
The federal record around Glen St. Mary shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (81), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Glen St. Mary?
From about Nov 9 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glen St. Mary's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glen St. Mary'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 Glen St. Mary’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Glen St. Mary's own scale — the 293 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glen St. Mary's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glen St. Mary, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glen St. Mary's boundary and the 293 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glen St. Mary's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Glen St. Mary has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baker County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glen St. Mary's 293 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baker County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baker 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 Baker County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Glen St. Mary's 293 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glen St. Mary you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 293 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Glen St. Mary-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaGlen St. Mary sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides