Milton, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — 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, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Milton, 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 Milton 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 Milton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Milton — the short answer
Milton, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Santa Rosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Milton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Milton's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Milton
Each reading below is measured for Milton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMilton runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Santa Rosa County, the closest normal to Milton) — 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
MeasuredMilton 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 Milton is in
Milton sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Milton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Santa Rosa County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Milton
Every plant below cleared Milton'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 Milton?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Milton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Milton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOC #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- WINN-DIXIE #0489Brownfields · 1600 ft
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #71Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- HOLMES PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- EXXON-STEWART STUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILTON HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- MILEY PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AIR PRODUCTS & CHEMICALS INCSuperfund · 0.5 mi
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #70Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- KEN KINCAID PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MILTON NEWSPAPERS INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HAYES PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Milton'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 Milton.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Milton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Milton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Milton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Milton — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (5 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Milton
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 Milton average
Your land is one point inside Milton
Everything above resolves to Milton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Santa Rosa 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 Milton Average
Milton Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Milton
- ●One soil character for all of Milton
- ●Frost dates read at Milton's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Milton's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Milton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Milton, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Milton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Milton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Milton average
How we know this about Milton
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 Santa Rosa 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 Milton
When does frost risk typically end in Milton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Milton typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Milton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Milton typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Milton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Milton sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 22, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Milton?
The federal record around Milton is a meaningful one — 292 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (145), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Milton?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Milton's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Milton'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 Milton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Milton's own scale — the 3,668 acres it covers and 292 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Milton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 292 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Milton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Milton's boundary and the 3,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Milton sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Milton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Santa Rosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Milton's 3,668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Rosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Milton's 3,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Milton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Milton-wide figureread your own land →