Hawthorne, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hawthorne, 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 Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hawthorne — the short answer
Hawthorne, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 306 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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
- 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 Alachua County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Hawthorne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hawthorne's 306-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hawthorne
Each reading below is measured for Hawthorne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHawthorne runs about 306 days between hard freezes (read from Alachua County, the closest normal to Hawthorne) — 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
MeasuredHawthorne 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 Hawthorne is in
Hawthorne sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hawthorne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Alachua County.
What Grows in Hawthorne
Every plant below cleared Hawthorne'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 Hawthorne?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Hawthorne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hawthorne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FL SEPTIC INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- ALACHUA CNTY SCHOOL BD-HAWTHORNE HSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FLORIDA SEPTIC TRUCK WASHBrownfields · 1700 ft
- TEFFT JEANETTE M PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FASPAS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NEWMANS X RAY SUPPLYBrownfields · 2400 ft
- BELLSOUTH TELE #33452 HWTHFLMAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- MIDDLETONS LOCK & KEY SRVCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ARNOLDS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CENTRAL MOTOR SUPPLY OF HAWTHORNE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- EDDIES GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- M & S BANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hawthorne'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 Hawthorne.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hawthorne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hawthorne, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 66 sites within ~10 miles of Hawthorne. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Hawthorne
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 Hawthorne average
Your land is one point inside Hawthorne
Everything above resolves to Hawthorne as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K 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 Hawthorne Average
Hawthorne Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Hawthorne
- ●One soil character for all of Hawthorne
- ●Frost dates read at Hawthorne's scale: Feb 7 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hawthorne's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hawthorne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hawthorne, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hawthorne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hawthorne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hawthorne average
How we know this about Hawthorne
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 Hawthorne
When does frost risk typically end in Hawthorne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne?
The federal record around Hawthorne shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Hawthorne?
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 Hawthorne's scale — its 9a band and its 306-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hawthorne'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 Hawthorne’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hawthorne's own scale — the 4,739 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hawthorne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hawthorne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hawthorne's boundary and the 4,739 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 Hawthorne's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hawthorne 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 Hawthorne's 4,739 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 Hawthorne's 4,739 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hawthorne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,739 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 Hawthorne-wide figureread your own land →
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