Mims, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Mims, 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 Mims 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 Mims — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Mims — the short answer
Mims, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Mims's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mims's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mims
Each reading below is measured for Mims itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMims runs about 333 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredMims sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a.
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 Mims is in
Mims sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mims's own centroid rather than borrowed from Brevard County.
What Grows in Mims
Every plant below cleared Mims's own zone 10a and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mims?
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 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Jan 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Mims
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mims. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LUCAS GARAGE & TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- PW ROBERTS JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- PINEWOOD ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ANDERSON RENTALSBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- FUEL TECH INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PRAXAIR INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- PRAXAIR INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- TRACTOR SUPPLY STOREBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- MIMS RELAY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- BREVARD COUNTY MIMS ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #6587Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- MIMS CITRUS GROWERS ASSOCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mims'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 Mims.
Total Sites
233
within ~10 miles of Mims
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mims
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mims
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mims, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Mims. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Mims
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 Mims average
Your land is one point inside Mims
Everything above resolves to Mims as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 town 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 Mims Average
Mims Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Mims
- ●One soil character for all of Mims
- ●Frost dates read at Mims's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mims's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mims
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mims, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mims averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mims — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mims average
How we know this about Mims
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Mims’s own record; 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Mims
When does frost risk typically end in Mims?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mims typically lands around Jan 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Mims?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mims typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mims?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mims sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 4, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mims?
The federal record around Mims is a meaningful one — 233 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Mims?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mims's scale — its 10a band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mims'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 Mims’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Mims's own scale — its own ~333-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,925 acres it covers and 233 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mims's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Mims's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 19 and Dec 18 and the ~333-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 233 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mims, the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mims's boundary and the 10,925 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Mims's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mims's 10,925 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Brevard County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Brevard 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 Brevard County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mims's 10,925 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mims you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,925 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.8 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 Mims-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaMims sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides