Jacksonville Beach, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Jacksonville Beach, 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 Jacksonville Beach 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 Jacksonville Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Jacksonville Beach — the short answer
Jacksonville Beach, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 324 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 30
- Duval County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Duval County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~324
- Duval 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 Duval County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Jacksonville Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jacksonville Beach's 324-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jacksonville Beach
Each reading below is measured for Jacksonville Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsJacksonville Beach runs about 324 days between hard freezes (read from Duval County, the closest normal to Jacksonville Beach) — 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
MeasuredJacksonville Beach 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 Jacksonville Beach is in
Jacksonville Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jacksonville Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Duval County.
What Grows in Jacksonville Beach
Every plant below cleared Jacksonville Beach's own zone 9b and its 324-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jacksonville Beach?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 30 (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. 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 Jacksonville Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jacksonville Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JAX ENERGY LAGOON- 7128Underground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ALLIED TIRES & SERVICE STORE #83Brownfields · 1000 ft
- SOUTHEAST ATLANTIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CHEVRON-TRAINING CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- FLORIDA DEP DSCP D231 #169501165Brownfields · 1100 ft
- CLEAN GET AWAY CAR WASH #501Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ADAMS GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #1811Brownfields · 1200 ft
- FLORIDA ROCK INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- KANGAROO EXPRESS INC #6160Brownfields · 1700 ft
- CIRCLE K #2723848Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- EXXON CO USA #45695Brownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jacksonville Beach'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 Jacksonville Beach.
Total Sites
584
within ~10 miles of Jacksonville Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jacksonville Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jacksonville Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jacksonville Beach, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 319 sites within ~10 miles of Jacksonville Beach. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Brownfields: Brownfield sites are former commercial or industrial properties where legacy soil contamination (heavy metals, PAHs, petroleum compounds) may persist.
Check EPA brownfield remediation status — many sites have completed cleanup with institutional controls.
Check your specific parcel in Jacksonville Beach
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 Jacksonville Beach average
Your land is one point inside Jacksonville Beach
Everything above resolves to Jacksonville Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Duval 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 Jacksonville Beach Average
Jacksonville Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Jacksonville Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Jacksonville Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Jacksonville Beach's scale: Jan 30 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jacksonville Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jacksonville Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jacksonville Beach, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jacksonville Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jacksonville Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jacksonville Beach average
How we know this about Jacksonville Beach
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 Duval 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 Jacksonville Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Jacksonville Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jacksonville Beach typically lands around Jan 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Jacksonville Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jacksonville Beach 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 324 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jacksonville Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jacksonville Beach sees about 324 frost-free days — roughly Jan 30 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 20 to Dec 6, about 289 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jacksonville Beach?
The federal record around Jacksonville Beach is a meaningful one — 584 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (319), 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 Jacksonville Beach?
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 Jacksonville Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 324-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jacksonville Beach'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 Jacksonville Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Jacksonville Beach's own scale — the 4,682 acres it covers and 584 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jacksonville Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 584 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jacksonville Beach, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jacksonville Beach's boundary and the 4,682 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~324-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jacksonville Beach's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Jacksonville Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Duval County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jacksonville Beach's 4,682 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Duval County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Duval 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 Duval County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jacksonville Beach's 4,682 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jacksonville Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,682 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 Jacksonville Beach-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Growing region
Nearby growing guides