Marathon, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Marathon, 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 Marathon 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 Marathon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marathon — the short answer
Marathon, Florida: USDA zone 11b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 11b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 11b is Marathon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marathon's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Marathon
Each reading below is measured for Marathon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMarathon sits in USDA hardiness zone 11b.
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 Marathon is in
Marathon sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Marathon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Marathon
Every plant below cleared Marathon's own zone 11b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Marathon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marathon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RALLY TIRE AUTO CENTERSBrownfields · 300 ft
- BOATHOUSE MGMT CO LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- GIANT OIL # 136Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DAYS INN-MARATHON MARINA HOTELUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BP-SURFSIDEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SCOTTYS LUMBER #94Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CIRCLE K #2702370Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BELLSOUTH TEL INC #M2616 VACAKEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SUNSHINE #384Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- OUTTA THE BLUE MARINABrownfields · 0.7 mi
- LISTIA FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- REITMARINEBrownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marathon'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 Marathon.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Marathon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marathon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marathon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Marathon, Brownfields runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Marathon. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Marathon
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 Marathon average
Your land is one point inside Marathon
Everything above resolves to Marathon as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 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 Marathon Average
Marathon Average
- ●USDA Zones 11b, averaged across Marathon
- ●One soil character for all of Marathon
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marathon's 11b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marathon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marathon, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marathon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marathon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marathon average
How we know this about Marathon
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 Marathon
Is it too late to plant in Marathon?
No — Marathon has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in Marathon?
It doesn't — Marathon records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in Marathon?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Marathon contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Marathon?
The federal record around Marathon shows 86 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (45), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
Everything above is measured at Marathon's scale — its 11b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Marathon'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 Marathon’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marathon's own scale — the 5,405 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marathon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Marathon — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marathon, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marathon's boundary and the 5,405 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Marathon's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marathon'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 Marathon's 5,405 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marathon's 5,405 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marathon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,405 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Marathon-wide figureread your own land →
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