Marco Island, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Marco Island, 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 Marco Island 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 Marco Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Marco Island — the short answer
Marco Island, Florida: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 8K 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 10b is Marco Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Marco Island'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 Marco Island
Each reading below is measured for Marco Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMarco Island sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Marco Island is in
Marco Island sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Marco Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Collier County.
What Grows in Marco Island
Every plant below cleared Marco Island's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Marco Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Marco Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1655Brownfields · 1600 ft
- FDEP DSCP D450 ID #119502410Brownfields · 1700 ft
- WALGREENS #5197Brownfields · 2000 ft
- HJS PETROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COLLIER CNTY-MARCO ISLAND SITEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ISLAND COUNTRY CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SAN MARCO RESIDENCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MAROONED AT MARCOBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- MARRIOTTS MARCO ISLAND RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- MARCO ISLAND MARRIOTT BEACH RESORT GOLF CLUB & SPABrownfields · 1.5 mi
- EAGLES NEST BEACH RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #23962Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Marco Island'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 Marco Island.
Total Sites
121
within ~10 miles of Marco Island
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Marco Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Marco Island
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 Marco Island
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 Marco Island average
Your land is one point inside Marco Island
Everything above resolves to Marco Island as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 8K 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 Marco Island Average
Marco Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across Marco Island
- ●One soil character for all of Marco Island
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Marco Island's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Marco Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Marco Island, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Marco Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around Marco Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Marco Island average
How we know this about Marco Island
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 Marco Island
Is it too late to plant in Marco Island?
No — Marco Island 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 Marco Island?
It doesn't — Marco Island 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 Marco Island?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Marco Island 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 Marco Island?
The federal record around Marco Island shows 121 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles 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 Marco Island's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Marco Island'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 Marco Island’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Marco Island's own scale — the 7,780 acres it covers and 121 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Marco Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Marco Island — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 121 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Marco Island, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Marco Island's boundary and the 7,780 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Marco Island's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Marco Island'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 Marco Island's 7,780 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Collier County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Collier 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 Collier County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Marco Island's 7,780 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Marco Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,780 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Marco Island-wide figureread your own land →