Mexico Beach, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mexico Beach, 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 Mexico Beach 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 Mexico Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mexico Beach — the short answer
Mexico Beach, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 5
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 14
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Bay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Bay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Mexico Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mexico Beach's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mexico Beach
Each reading below is measured for Mexico Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMexico Beach runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Bay County, the closest normal to Mexico Beach) — 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
MeasuredMexico Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b.
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 Mexico Beach is in
Mexico Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mexico Beach's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bay County.
What Grows in Mexico Beach
Every plant below cleared Mexico Beach's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mexico Beach?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Mexico Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mexico Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOCAL NO. 956524141Nitrate · 500 ft
- ST JOE TIREBrownfields · 1500 ft
- GULF FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ROYS CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HIDE A WAY HARBOR MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EXPRESS LANE #778 - FL0034Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHUCK GUILFORD PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- E-Z SERVE #4376Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MARQUARDTS MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- EXPRESS LANE #705 - FL0015Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- MEXICO BEACH MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MEXICO BEACH SRVC CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mexico Beach'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 Mexico Beach.
Total Sites
37
within ~10 miles of Mexico Beach
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mexico Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mexico Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mexico Beach, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 25 sites within ~10 miles of Mexico Beach. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Mexico Beach
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 Mexico Beach average
Your land is one point inside Mexico Beach
Everything above resolves to Mexico Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bay 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 Mexico Beach Average
Mexico Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Mexico Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Mexico Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Mexico Beach's scale: Feb 5 to Dec 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mexico Beach's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mexico Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mexico Beach, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mexico Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mexico Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mexico Beach average
How we know this about Mexico Beach
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 Bay 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 Mexico Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Mexico Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mexico Beach typically lands around Feb 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Mexico Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mexico Beach typically arrives around Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 30, so the watching starts about Nov 14 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mexico Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mexico Beach sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 5 through Dec 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 26 to Nov 30, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mexico Beach?
The federal record around Mexico Beach shows 37 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (25), the nearest Nitrate 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Mexico Beach?
From about Nov 14 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mexico Beach's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mexico Beach'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 Mexico Beach’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mexico Beach's own scale — the 1,563 acres it covers and 37 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mexico Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 37 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mexico Beach, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mexico Beach's boundary and the 1,563 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mexico Beach's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mexico Beach has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mexico Beach's 1,563 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bay 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 Bay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mexico Beach's 1,563 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mexico Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,563 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Mexico Beach-wide figureread your own land →