Hastings, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hastings, 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 Hastings 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 Hastings — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hastings — the short answer
Hastings, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 329 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 25
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~329
- St. Johns County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 St. Johns County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Hastings's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hastings's 329-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hastings
Each reading below is measured for Hastings itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHastings runs about 329 days between hard freezes (read from St. Johns County, the closest normal to Hastings) — 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
MeasuredHastings 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 Hastings is in
Hastings sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hastings's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Johns County.
What Grows in Hastings
Every plant below cleared Hastings's own zone 9b and its 329-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hastings?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Hastings
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hastings. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PENINSULA SEAFOOD & PRODUCE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- CARGO #427Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- KANGAROO EXPRESS INC #6278Brownfields · 2600 ft
- WHEELS-N-PERFORMANCEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- CIRCLE K #2726278Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DOLLAR GENERALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DEFORDS SERVICE STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LIL CHAMP FOOD STORE #55Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TRACTOR DEPOT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PAUL W STEWARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- UNIV OF FL-AGRIC RES & ED CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ST JOHNS CNTY SCHOOL BD-TRANSPORTATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hastings'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 Hastings.
Total Sites
187
within ~10 miles of Hastings
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hastings
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hastings
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hastings, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 124 sites within ~10 miles of Hastings. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Hastings
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 Hastings average
Your land is one point inside Hastings
Everything above resolves to Hastings as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Johns 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 Hastings Average
Hastings Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Hastings
- ●One soil character for all of Hastings
- ●Frost dates read at Hastings's scale: Jan 25 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hastings's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hastings
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hastings, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hastings averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hastings — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hastings average
How we know this about Hastings
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 St. Johns 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 Hastings
When does frost risk typically end in Hastings?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hastings typically lands around Jan 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Hastings?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hastings typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 329 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hastings?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hastings sees about 329 frost-free days — roughly Jan 25 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 15 to Dec 6, about 294 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hastings?
The federal record around Hastings is a meaningful one — 187 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hastings?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hastings's scale — its 9b band and its 329-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hastings'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 Hastings’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hastings's own scale — the 2,073 acres it covers and 187 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hastings's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 187 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hastings, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hastings's boundary and the 2,073 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~329-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hastings's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hastings has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Johns County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hastings's 2,073 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Johns County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Johns 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 St. Johns County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hastings's 2,073 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hastings you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,073 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Hastings-wide figureread your own land →