Pine Lakes, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pine Lakes, 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 Pine Lakes 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 Pine Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Lakes — the short answer
Pine Lakes, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Lake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Pine Lakes's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Lakes's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Lakes
Each reading below is measured for Pine Lakes itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPine Lakes runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from Lake County, the closest normal to Pine Lakes) — 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
MeasuredPine Lakes 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 Pine Lakes is in
Pine Lakes sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Lakes's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Pine Lakes
Every plant below cleared Pine Lakes's own zone 9b and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Lakes?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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 Pine Lakes
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Lakes. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SHARKEYS RESTAURANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- CIRCLE K #7426Brownfields · 650 ft
- CIRCLE K #7426Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUDS AUTOMOTIVEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- ROYAL TRAILS CLUBHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- LOWER WEKIWA R. 2IN FREE FLOWNitrate · 2.4 mi
- JOHN WALKER TAXIDERMYBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- LOWER WEKIWA 2IN FREE NO.2 SOUTHNitrate · 4.7 mi
- HOLLY BLUFF MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- HONTOON LANDING MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- HOLLY BLUFF MARINA INCBrownfields · 5.2 mi
- GENTRY EARL SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Lakes'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 Pine Lakes.
Total Sites
279
within ~10 miles of Pine Lakes
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Lakes
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Lakes
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Lakes, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 174 sites within ~10 miles of Pine Lakes. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Lakes
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 Pine Lakes average
Your land is one point inside Pine Lakes
Everything above resolves to Pine Lakes as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake 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 Pine Lakes Average
Pine Lakes Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Pine Lakes
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Lakes
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Lakes's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Lakes's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Lakes
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Lakes, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Lakes averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Lakes — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Lakes average
How we know this about Pine Lakes
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 Lake 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 Pine Lakes
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Lakes?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Lakes typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Pine Lakes?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Lakes typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Lakes?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Lakes sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 6, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Lakes?
The federal record around Pine Lakes is a meaningful one — 279 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (174), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pine Lakes?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Lakes's scale — its 9b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Lakes'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 Pine Lakes’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pine Lakes's own scale — the 1,025 acres it covers and 279 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Lakes's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 279 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Lakes, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Lakes's boundary and the 1,025 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pine Lakes's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pine Lakes has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Lakes's 1,025 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Lakes's 1,025 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Lakes you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,025 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Pine Lakes-wide figureread your own land →
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