Port St. Joe, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Port St. Joe, 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 Port St. Joe 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 Port St. Joe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Port St. Joe — the short answer
Port St. Joe, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 314 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 1
- Gulf County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 12
- Gulf County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~314
- Gulf County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Gulf County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Port St. Joe's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Port St. Joe's 314-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Port St. Joe
Each reading below is measured for Port St. Joe itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPort St. Joe runs about 314 days between hard freezes (read from Gulf County, the closest normal to Port St. Joe) — 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
MeasuredPort St. Joe 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 Port St. Joe is in
Port St. Joe sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Port St. Joe's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gulf County.
What Grows in Port St. Joe
Every plant below cleared Port St. Joe's own zone 9b and its 314-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Port St. Joe?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 1 (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. 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 Port St. Joe
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Port St. Joe. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EASTERN SHIPBUILDING GROUP INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- PORT SAINT JOE MARINABrownfields · 750 ft
- ST. JOE FOREST PRODUCTSSuperfund · 900 ft
- RAINBOW FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- ST. JOE FOREST PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- PORT ST. JOE, CITY OFPFAS · 1400 ft
- Gulf County Water DepartmentPFAS · 1400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #5246Brownfields · 1400 ft
- BP-SAMMYSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- BOYER PROPERTY IIUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GANT PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHEVRON-GAY & LEVINSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Port St. Joe'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 Port St. Joe.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Port St. Joe
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Port St. Joe
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Port St. Joe
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 Port St. Joe
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 Port St. Joe average
Your land is one point inside Port St. Joe
Everything above resolves to Port St. Joe as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gulf County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Port St. Joe Average
Port St. Joe Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Port St. Joe
- ●One soil character for all of Port St. Joe
- ●Frost dates read at Port St. Joe's scale: Feb 1 to Dec 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Port St. Joe's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Port St. Joe
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Port St. Joe, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Port St. Joe averages can't show:
We read public map data around Port St. Joe — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Port St. Joe average
How we know this about Port St. Joe
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Gulf 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Port St. Joe
When does frost risk typically end in Port St. Joe?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Port St. Joe typically lands around Feb 1, 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 22.
When is the first frost in Port St. Joe?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Port St. Joe 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 314 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Port St. Joe?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Port St. Joe sees about 314 frost-free days — roughly Feb 1 through Dec 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 22 to Nov 28, about 279 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Port St. Joe?
The federal record around Port St. Joe is a meaningful one — 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Brownfields 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 Port St. Joe?
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 Port St. Joe's scale — its 9b band and its 314-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Port St. Joe'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 Port St. Joe’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Port St. Joe's own scale — the 5,995 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Port St. Joe's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Port St. Joe, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Port St. Joe's boundary and the 5,995 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~314-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Port St. Joe's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Port St. Joe has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gulf County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Port St. Joe's 5,995 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gulf County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gulf 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 Gulf County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Port St. Joe's 5,995 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Port St. Joe you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,995 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Port St. Joe-wide figureread your own land →