Gonzalez, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gonzalez, 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 Gonzalez 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 Gonzalez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gonzalez — the short answer
Gonzalez, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 304 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~304
- Escambia County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Escambia County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gonzalez's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gonzalez's 304-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gonzalez
Each reading below is measured for Gonzalez itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGonzalez runs about 304 days between hard freezes (read from Escambia County, the closest normal to Gonzalez) — 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
MeasuredGonzalez 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 Gonzalez is in
Gonzalez sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gonzalez's own centroid rather than borrowed from Escambia County.
What Grows in Gonzalez
Every plant below cleared Gonzalez's own zone 9a and its 304-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gonzalez?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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.
Documented around Gonzalez
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Gonzalez, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gonzalez
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gonzalez. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHAS.RICHARDSON,GNZLZ.HTS.Nitrate · 1700 ft
- SHARAWAY ANNEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- WEBB'S WOOD PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Escambia County 195' Deep WellNitrate · 0.7 mi
- THE LIQUOR CABINETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- WINN-DIXIE #498Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- K C K SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- REEVES PENNY PROFITUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- ESCAMBIA CNTY SCHOOL BD - TATE HSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- J.M. TATE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #5303Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #1055Brownfields · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gonzalez'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 Gonzalez.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gonzalez
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gonzalez
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gonzalez, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Gonzalez. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Gonzalez
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 Gonzalez average
Your land is one point inside Gonzalez
Everything above resolves to Gonzalez as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Escambia 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 Gonzalez Average
Gonzalez Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gonzalez
- ●One soil character for all of Gonzalez
- ●Frost dates read at Gonzalez's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gonzalez's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gonzalez
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gonzalez, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gonzalez averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gonzalez — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gonzalez average
How we know this about Gonzalez
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 Escambia 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 Gonzalez
When does frost risk typically end in Gonzalez?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gonzalez typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Gonzalez?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gonzalez typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 304 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gonzalez?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gonzalez sees about 304 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 22, about 269 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gonzalez?
The federal record around Gonzalez runs heavier than most — 1,149 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (489), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Gonzalez?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gonzalez's scale — its 9a band and its 304-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gonzalez'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 Gonzalez’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gonzalez's own scale — the 9,690 acres it covers and 1,149 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gonzalez's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,149 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gonzalez, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gonzalez's boundary and the 9,690 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~304-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gonzalez's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gonzalezlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gonzalez has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Escambia County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gonzalez's 9,690 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Escambia County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Escambia 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 Escambia County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gonzalez's 9,690 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gonzalez you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,690 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Gonzalez-wide figureread your own land →