Laurel Hill, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Laurel Hill, 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 Laurel Hill 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 Laurel Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Laurel Hill — the short answer
Laurel Hill, Florida: USDA zone 8b, about 289 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 16
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~289
- Okaloosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Okaloosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Laurel Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Laurel Hill's 289-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Laurel Hill
Each reading below is measured for Laurel Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLaurel Hill runs about 289 days between hard freezes (read from Okaloosa County, the closest normal to Laurel Hill) — 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
MeasuredLaurel Hill sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Laurel Hill is in
Laurel Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Laurel Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Okaloosa County.
What Grows in Laurel Hill
Every plant below cleared Laurel Hill's own zone 8b and its 289-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Laurel Hill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — 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 Laurel Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #94Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- STEELE'S GROCERY & SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CLARYS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILLICENT NOELBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- OKALOOSA CNTY SCHOOL BD-LAUREL HILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ELITE TRAILERS INCBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- DIVISION OF FORESTRY-LAUREL HILL TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- FLA FOR.SER. LAUREL HILLNitrate · 2.1 mi
- CHAMPION TIMBERLANDS-SVEA WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- AUBURN WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 3.1 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO-SVEA WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- W.D.FLOURNOY JR. WELLNitrate · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Laurel Hill'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 Laurel Hill.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Laurel Hill, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 37 sites within ~10 miles of Laurel Hill. 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 Laurel Hill
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 Laurel Hill average
Your land is one point inside Laurel Hill
Everything above resolves to Laurel Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Okaloosa 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 Laurel Hill Average
Laurel Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Laurel Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Laurel Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Laurel Hill's scale: Feb 16 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Laurel Hill's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Laurel Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Laurel Hill, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Laurel Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Laurel Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Laurel Hill average
How we know this about Laurel Hill
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 Okaloosa 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 Laurel Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Laurel Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Hill typically lands around Feb 16, 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 Mar 9.
When is the first frost in Laurel Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Laurel Hill typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 289 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Laurel Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Laurel Hill sees about 289 frost-free days — roughly Feb 16 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 9 to Nov 18, about 254 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Laurel Hill?
The federal record around Laurel Hill is a meaningful one — 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Laurel Hill?
From about Nov 2 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 2 (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 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Laurel Hill's scale — its 8b band and its 289-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Laurel Hill'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 Laurel Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Laurel Hill's own scale — the 2,693 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Laurel Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Laurel Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Laurel Hill's boundary and the 2,693 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~289-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Laurel Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Laurel Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Okaloosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Laurel Hill's 2,693 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Okaloosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Okaloosa 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 Okaloosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Laurel Hill's 2,693 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Laurel Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,693 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Laurel Hill-wide figureread your own land →