Lake Alfred, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lake Alfred, 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 Lake Alfred 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 Lake Alfred — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Alfred — the short answer
Lake Alfred, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 332 days between hard freezes, across 13K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~332
- Polk County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 13K 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 Polk County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Lake Alfred's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Alfred's 332-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Alfred
Each reading below is measured for Lake Alfred itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLake Alfred runs about 332 days between hard freezes (read from Polk County, the closest normal to Lake Alfred) — 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
MeasuredLake Alfred sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Lake Alfred is in
Lake Alfred sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lake Alfred's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Lake Alfred
Every plant below cleared Lake Alfred's own zone 10a and its 332-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Alfred?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 22 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Lake Alfred
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Alfred. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAKE ALFRED, CITY OFPFAS · 1.2 mi
- KAREN M SIEGEL ACADEMYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- CUTRALE CITRUS JUICES USA INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HERMANS TERMITE PEST CONTROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- UNIV OF FL-IFAS CITRUS RESEARCH - MAIN CAMPUSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LAKE ALFRED BUS DEPOTBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- UF IFAS CITRUS RESEARCH AND EDUCATION CENTERBrownfields · 2.4 mi
- FIELDS EQUIPMENT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- BUTLER TRUCKING INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LAKE ALFRED DEEP WELL NEAR LAKE ALFRED, FLNitrate · 2.5 mi
- LAKE ALFRED SHALLOW W. NEAR LAKE ALFRED, FLNitrate · 2.6 mi
- THOMAS PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Alfred'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 Lake Alfred.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Alfred
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Alfred
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Lake Alfred
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 Lake Alfred average
Your land is one point inside Lake Alfred
Everything above resolves to Lake Alfred as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 13K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Polk 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 Lake Alfred Average
Lake Alfred Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Lake Alfred
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Alfred
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Alfred's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Alfred's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Alfred
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Alfred, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Alfred averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Alfred — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Alfred average
How we know this about Lake Alfred
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 Polk 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 Lake Alfred
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Alfred?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Alfred typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lake Alfred?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Alfred 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 332 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Alfred?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Alfred sees about 332 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 6, about 297 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Alfred?
The federal record around Lake Alfred is a meaningful one — 946 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (540), the nearest PFAS record about 1.2 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 Lake Alfred?
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 Lake Alfred's scale — its 10a band and its 332-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Alfred'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 Lake Alfred’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lake Alfred's own scale — the 13,437 acres it covers and 946 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Alfred's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 946 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Alfred, the closest PFAS record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Alfred's boundary and the 13,437 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~332-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Alfred's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lake Alfred has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Polk County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Alfred's 13,437 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Alfred's 13,437 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Alfred you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 13,437 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 1.2 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 Lake Alfred-wide figureread your own land →
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