Green Cove Springs, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — tomato, sweet potato, jalapeno, and loquat — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Green Cove Springs, 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 Green Cove Springs 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 Green Cove Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Green Cove Springs — the short answer
Green Cove Springs, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 300 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~300
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Clay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Green Cove Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Green Cove Springs's 300-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Green Cove Springs
Each reading below is measured for Green Cove Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGreen Cove Springs runs about 300 days between hard freezes (read from Clay County, the closest normal to Green Cove Springs) — 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
MeasuredGreen Cove Springs 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 Green Cove Springs is in
Green Cove Springs sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Green Cove Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Green Cove Springs
Plants matched to Green Cove Springs's USDA zones 9b, ordered by how much hardiness margin each has here — the ones with room to spare at both ends of this town's band lead. Each links to its full growing profile.
Is it too late to plant in Green Cove Springs?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (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.
What's on the federal record near Green Cove Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Green Cove Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KINDRED HOSPITAL NORTH FLORIDABrownfields · 1200 ft
- G.B. WITMER ASSOCIATESToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- CIRCLE K #2726502Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- LIL CHAMP #6013Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- KINDRED HOSPITAL NORTH FLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- ROBERTS USED CARSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- ALTERNATE ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 2500 ft
- UNION CAMP CORP-SEMINOLE FORESTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- PAS-TYME INNUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DARREN'S CUSTOM & RESTORATIONSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FRONT RUNNER BOATWORKSBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- GREEN COVE SPRINGS CITY - OLD FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Green Cove Springs'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 Green Cove Springs.
Total Sites
189
within ~10 miles of Green Cove Springs
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Green Cove Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Green Cove Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Green Cove Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Green Cove Springs — PFAS (3 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Green Cove Springs
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 Green Cove Springs average
Your land is one point inside Green Cove Springs
Everything above resolves to Green Cove Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clay 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 Green Cove Springs Average
Green Cove Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Green Cove Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Green Cove Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Green Cove Springs's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Green Cove Springs's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Green Cove Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Green Cove Springs, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Green Cove Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Green Cove Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Green Cove Springs average
How we know this about Green Cove Springs
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 Clay 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 Green Cove Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Green Cove Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Green Cove Springs typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Green Cove Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Green Cove Springs 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 300 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Green Cove Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Green Cove Springs sees about 300 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 22, about 265 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Green Cove Springs?
The federal record around Green Cove Springs is a meaningful one — 189 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Green Cove Springs?
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 Green Cove Springs's scale — its 9b band and its 300-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Green Cove Springs'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 Green Cove Springs’s own scale
4 of the readings below were taken at Green Cove Springs's own scale — the 5,483 acres it covers and 189 documented sites around it; 6 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Green Cove Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 189 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Green Cove Springs, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Green Cove Springs's boundary and the 5,483 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- The ecoregion at Green Cove Springs's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Green Cove Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Green Cove Springs's 5,483 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- The candidate plant list — Florida's curated set, filtered to this zone band and re-ordered by how much margin each has herefrom Florida
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Green Cove Springs's 5,483 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Green Cove Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,483 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Green Cove Springs-wide figureread your own land →