Nassau Village-Ratliff, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nassau Village-Ratliff, 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nassau Village-Ratliff — the short answer
Nassau Village-Ratliff, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Nassau County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Nassau County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Nassau County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Nassau County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Nassau Village-Ratliff's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nassau Village-Ratliff's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nassau Village-Ratliff
Each reading below is measured for Nassau Village-Ratliff itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNassau Village-Ratliff runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Nassau County, the closest normal to Nassau Village-Ratliff) — 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
MeasuredNassau Village-Ratliff 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff is in
Nassau Village-Ratliff sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nassau Village-Ratliff's own centroid rather than borrowed from Nassau County.
What Grows in Nassau Village-Ratliff
Every plant below cleared Nassau Village-Ratliff's own zone 9a and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nassau Village-Ratliff?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 12 — 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nassau Village-Ratliff. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C & M NETTLES TRUCKING INCBrownfields · 2100 ft
- CIRCLE K #2726109Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KANGAROO EXPRESS INC #6109Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- BLACKSHEAR METALSToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- SUN NEWSPAPERS INCBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- GREENS HOT RODS AND COLLISIONBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- MCIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GAFL SUS4 2IN DOMESTIC 610FT WELL NR CALLAHAN, FLNitrate · 2.4 mi
- FPL MILLS SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SOUTHERN BELL-JCVLFLQ5Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- CIRCLE K #2726056Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- NASSAU SOUND & ELECTRONICSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nassau Village-Ratliff'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 Nassau Village-Ratliff.
Total Sites
269
within ~10 miles of Nassau Village-Ratliff
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nassau Village-Ratliff
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nassau Village-Ratliff
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.
- •TRI facilities report what they release. Check the wind — downwind beds catch more of it.
Check your specific parcel in Nassau Village-Ratliff
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 Nassau Village-Ratliff average
Your land is one point inside Nassau Village-Ratliff
Everything above resolves to Nassau Village-Ratliff as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Nassau County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff Average
Nassau Village-Ratliff Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Nassau Village-Ratliff
- ●One soil character for all of Nassau Village-Ratliff
- ●Frost dates read at Nassau Village-Ratliff's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nassau Village-Ratliff's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nassau Village-Ratliff
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nassau Village-Ratliff, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nassau Village-Ratliff averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nassau Village-Ratliff — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nassau Village-Ratliff average
How we know this about Nassau Village-Ratliff
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 Nassau 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 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff
When does frost risk typically end in Nassau Village-Ratliff?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nassau Village-Ratliff typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Nassau Village-Ratliff?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nassau Village-Ratliff typically arrives around Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 28, so the watching starts about Nov 12 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nassau Village-Ratliff?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nassau Village-Ratliff sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 28, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nassau Village-Ratliff?
The federal record around Nassau Village-Ratliff is a meaningful one — 269 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (137), the nearest Brownfields 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff?
From about Nov 12 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nassau Village-Ratliff's scale — its 9a band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nassau Village-Ratliff'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 Nassau Village-Ratliff’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Nassau Village-Ratliff's own scale — the 9,386 acres it covers and 269 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nassau Village-Ratliff's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nassau Village-Ratliff, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nassau Village-Ratliff's boundary and the 9,386 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nassau Village-Ratliff's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Nassau Village-Ratliff has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Nassau County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nassau Village-Ratliff's 9,386 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Nassau County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Nassau 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 Nassau County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nassau Village-Ratliff's 9,386 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nassau Village-Ratliff you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,386 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Nassau Village-Ratliff-wide figureread your own land →
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