Midway, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Midway, 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 Midway 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 Midway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midway — the short answer
Midway, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Gadsden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 7
- Gadsden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Gadsden County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Gadsden County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Midway's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midway's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midway
Each reading below is measured for Midway itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMidway runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Gadsden County, the closest normal to Midway) — 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
MeasuredMidway sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Midway is in
Midway sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Midway's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gadsden County.
What Grows in Midway
Every plant below cleared Midway's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midway?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 7 — 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 Midway
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midway. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MIDWAY STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- JOYNER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ACE SALVAGE INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- JOHNSON PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LAWSONS PAINT & BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- TRI-EAGLE SALESBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- RING POWER CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- ALTA CONSTRUCTION FLORIDA LLCBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- FLETCHER FORD TRACTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BIG BEND EQUIPMENT COBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- SHIVER DIESEL INJECTION SERVICEBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- HAPPY FOOD & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midway'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 Midway.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midway
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midway
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 Midway
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 Midway average
Your land is one point inside Midway
Everything above resolves to Midway as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gadsden 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 Midway Average
Midway Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Midway
- ●One soil character for all of Midway
- ●Frost dates read at Midway's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midway's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midway
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midway, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midway averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midway — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midway average
How we know this about Midway
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 Gadsden 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 Midway
When does frost risk typically end in Midway?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midway typically lands around Feb 11, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Midway?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midway typically arrives around Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 23, so the watching starts about Nov 7 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midway?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midway sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 23, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midway?
The federal record around Midway is a meaningful one — 532 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (313), 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 Midway?
From about Nov 7 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midway's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midway'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 Midway’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Midway's own scale — the 6,154 acres it covers and 532 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midway's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 532 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midway, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midway's boundary and the 6,154 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midway's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Midway has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gadsden County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midway's 6,154 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gadsden County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gadsden 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 Gadsden County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midway's 6,154 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midway you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,154 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 Midway-wide figureread your own land →
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