Lake Harbor, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Lake Harbor, 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 Harbor 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 Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Lake Harbor — the short answer
Lake Harbor, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 845 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 845 acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Lake Harbor's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lake Harbor's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lake Harbor
Each reading below is measured for Lake Harbor itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLake Harbor runs about 330 days between hard freezes — 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 Harbor 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 Harbor is in
Lake Harbor sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Lake Harbor's own centroid rather than borrowed from Palm Beach County.
What Grows in Lake Harbor
Every plant below cleared Lake Harbor's own zone 10a and its 330-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lake Harbor?
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 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — 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 Lake Harbor
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lake Harbor. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FL FAVORITE FERTILIZERUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- FLORIDA FAVORITE FERTILIZERToxics Release Inventory · 0.7 mi
- LAKE HARBOR HILL FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WATSON FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PB - 147Nitrate · 1.9 mi
- SOUTH BAY WASTEWATER LAB US SUGARBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- PB -1424Nitrate · 3.4 mi
- PB - 138Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- WEST PALM BEACH READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- PB -1423Nitrate · 4.2 mi
- MARKHAM J WUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- FL DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION TERRYTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lake Harbor'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 Harbor.
Total Sites
297
within ~10 miles of Lake Harbor
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lake Harbor
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lake Harbor
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 Harbor
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 Harbor average
Your land is one point inside Lake Harbor
Everything above resolves to Lake Harbor as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 845 acres. 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 Lake Harbor Average
Lake Harbor Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Lake Harbor
- ●One soil character for all of Lake Harbor
- ●Frost dates read at Lake Harbor's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lake Harbor's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lake Harbor
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lake Harbor, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lake Harbor averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lake Harbor — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lake Harbor average
How we know this about Lake Harbor
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 Harbor’s own record; 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 Lake Harbor
When does frost risk typically end in Lake Harbor?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Harbor typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Lake Harbor?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lake Harbor typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 330 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lake Harbor?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lake Harbor sees about 330 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 1, about 295 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lake Harbor?
The federal record around Lake Harbor is a meaningful one — 297 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (155), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Harbor?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lake Harbor's scale — its 10a band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lake Harbor'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 Harbor’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Lake Harbor's own scale — its own ~330-day season between 28°F freezes, the 845 acres it covers and 297 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lake Harbor's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lake Harbor's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 19 and Dec 15 and the ~330-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 297 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lake Harbor, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lake Harbor's boundary and the 845 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~330-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lake Harbor's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lake Harbor's 845 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Palm Beach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lake Harbor's 845 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lake Harbor you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 845 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Harbor-wide figureread your own land →
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