Northdale, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
The conditions favor okra, taro, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Northdale, 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 Northdale lot. Enter your address and we'll score 1,085 plants against your land's actual soil, sun, and frost.
We read public map data around Northdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your parcel report in seconds — read in full free for your first 14 days
Northdale — the short answer
Northdale, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 336 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~336
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 9b is Northdale's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Northdale's 336-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Northdale
Each reading below is measured for Northdale itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNorthdale runs about 336 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
MeasuredNorthdale 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 Northdale is in
Northdale sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Northdale's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Northdale
Every plant below cleared Northdale's own zone 9b and its 336-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
More to grow in Florida
Florida has a growing page for many more plants than fit above — a rotating sample of the rest of the shelf.
Is it too late to plant in Northdale?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 24 — 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 Northdale
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Northdale. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HILLSBOROUGH CO WATER UTIL AGWQMP ID-057VF115 FLNitrate · 650 ft
- HILLSBOROUGH CO WATER UTIL ID057VS114 DESTROYEDNitrate · 650 ft
- HILLSBOROUGH CNTY PUBLIC UTIL-N DALEUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- A&E OF PINELLAS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CLAYWELL ELEM AGWQMP ID-057VF092 FLNitrate · 0.6 mi
- CLAYWELL ELEM. AGWQMP ID-057VS091 FLNitrate · 0.6 mi
- NORTHDALE GOLF & TENNIS CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SECTION 21 DEEP WELL 1 NEAR LUTZ FLNitrate · 1.1 mi
- HALFMOON LAKE 2 NRSD WELL NEAR CITRUS PARK FLNitrate · 1.1 mi
- DOSSON LAKE 23 NRSD WELL NEAR LUTZ FLNitrate · 1.2 mi
- DOSSON LAKE 4 NRSD WELL NEAR LUTZ FLNitrate · 1.2 mi
- DOSSON LAKE 1 FLORIDAN WELL NEAR LUTZ FLNitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius.
Measured from Northdale's center, not your beds. Run your own address for what's upwind of you specifically.
Browse the full contamination data for this area
Environmental Intelligence
The counts behind that headline — every source type on the record near Northdale.
Total Sites
2,298
within ~10 miles of Northdale
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
19 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Northdale
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Northdale
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 Northdale
Get exact proximity distances to contamination sources for your specific parcel — plus soil, sun, drainage, and 1,085 plant recommendations.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northdale average
Your land is one point inside Northdale
Everything above resolves to Northdale as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Northdale Average
Northdale Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Northdale
- ●One soil character for all of Northdale
- ●Frost dates read at Northdale's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Northdale's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Northdale
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Northdale, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Northdale averages can't show:
We read public map data around Northdale — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Northdale average
How we know this about Northdale
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 Northdale’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 Northdale
When does frost risk typically end in Northdale?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Northdale typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Northdale?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Northdale typically arrives around Dec 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 10, so the watching starts about Nov 24 — about 336 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Northdale?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Northdale sees about 336 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 10, about 301 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Northdale?
The federal record around Northdale runs heavier than most — 2,298 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,052), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Northdale?
From about Nov 24 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Northdale's scale — its 9b band and its 336-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Northdale'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 Northdale’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Northdale's own scale — its own ~336-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,155 acres it covers and 2,298 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Northdale's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Northdale's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 22 and Dec 24 and the ~336-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 2,298 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Northdale, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Northdale's boundary and the 5,155 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,085 plants clear zones 9b and a ~336-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Northdale's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Northdale's 5,155 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsborough County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Northdale's 5,155 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Northdale you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,155 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Northdale-wide figureread your own land →
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