Lady Lake, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lady Lake, 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 Lady Lake 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 Lady Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lady Lake — the short answer
Lady Lake, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Lake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Lady Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lady Lake's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lady Lake
Each reading below is measured for Lady Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLady Lake runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from Lake County, the closest normal to Lady Lake) — 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
MeasuredLady Lake 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 Lady Lake is in
Lady Lake sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lady Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Lady Lake
Every plant below cleared Lady Lake's own zone 9b and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lady Lake?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 26 (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 Lady Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lady Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LADY LAKE TOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- HART CITRUS NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- RACETRAC #186Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- SKY ENERGY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CHEVRON-LADY LAKEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CART WORLD UPGRADESBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- THE PANTRY #6264 DBA LIL CHAMP #6264Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PURE-LADY LAKE #275Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WAWA #5326Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- ORANGE BLOSSOM GARDENSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TIRE KINGDOM #6952Brownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lady Lake'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 Lady Lake.
Total Sites
505
within ~10 miles of Lady Lake
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
9 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lady Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lady Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lady Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lady Lake — PFAS (13 sites) and Superfund (9 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Lady Lake
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 Lady Lake average
Your land is one point inside Lady Lake
Everything above resolves to Lady Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake 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 Lady Lake Average
Lady Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Lady Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Lady Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Lady Lake's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lady Lake's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lady Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lady Lake, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lady Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lady Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lady Lake average
How we know this about Lady Lake
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 Lake 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 Lady Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Lady Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lady Lake typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Lady Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lady Lake 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 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lady Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lady Lake sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 6, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lady Lake?
The federal record around Lady Lake runs heavier than most — 505 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (298), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Lady Lake?
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 Lady Lake's scale — its 9b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lady Lake'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 Lady Lake’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lady Lake's own scale — the 5,976 acres it covers and 505 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lady Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 505 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lady Lake, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lady Lake's boundary and the 5,976 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lady Lake's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lady Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lady Lake's 5,976 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lady Lake's 5,976 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lady Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,976 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Lady Lake-wide figureread your own land →