Palm City, 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.
The conditions favor okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Palm City, 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 Palm City 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 Palm City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Palm City — the short answer
Palm City, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- Martin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- Martin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- Martin 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 Martin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10a is Palm City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Palm City's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Palm City
Each reading below is measured for Palm City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPalm City runs about 330 days between hard freezes (read from Martin County, the closest normal to Palm City) — 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
MeasuredPalm City 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 Palm City is in
Palm City sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Palm City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Martin County.
What Grows in Palm City
Every plant below cleared Palm City's own zone 10a and its 330-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Palm City?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 15 — 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 Palm City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Palm City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #577Brownfields · 2400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4231Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- FOREST HILLS MEMORIAL PARKBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- SUNSHINE STATE CARNATIONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CHEVRON-MARTIN DOWNS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WALGREENS STORE #4174Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- LOXAHATCHEE NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- SANDHILL COVE PROPERTIES, INC.Brownfields · 0.9 mi
- SANDHILL COVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MERIDIAN MARINA AND YACHT CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MARTIN CNTY SCHOOL BD-PALM CITY ELEMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BIO ANALYTIC LABORATORIES INCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Palm City'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 Palm City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Palm City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Palm City
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 Palm City
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 Palm City average
Your land is one point inside Palm City
Everything above resolves to Palm City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Martin 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 Palm City Average
Palm City Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Palm City
- ●One soil character for all of Palm City
- ●Frost dates read at Palm City's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Palm City's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Palm City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Palm City, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Palm City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Palm City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Palm City average
How we know this about Palm City
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 Martin 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 Palm City
When does frost risk typically end in Palm City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Palm City 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 Palm City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Palm City typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 330 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Palm City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Palm City sees about 330 frost-free days — roughly Jan 19 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 9 to Dec 1, about 295 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Palm City?
The federal record around Palm City is a meaningful one — 781 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (386), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Palm City?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Palm City's scale — its 10a band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Palm City'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 Palm City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Palm City's own scale — the 8,871 acres it covers and 781 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Palm City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 781 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Palm City, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Palm City's boundary and the 8,871 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 10a and a ~330-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Palm City's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Palm City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Martin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Palm City's 8,871 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Martin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Martin 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 Martin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Palm City's 8,871 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Palm City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,871 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Palm City-wide figureread your own land →