Shady Hills, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Shady Hills, 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 Shady Hills 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 Shady Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Shady Hills — the short answer
Shady Hills, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 325 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 27
- Pasco County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 18
- Pasco County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~325
- Pasco County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 18K 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 Pasco County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Shady Hills's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shady Hills's 325-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Shady Hills
Each reading below is measured for Shady Hills itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsShady Hills runs about 325 days between hard freezes (read from Pasco County, the closest normal to Shady Hills) — 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
MeasuredShady Hills 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 Shady Hills is in
Shady Hills sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Shady Hills's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pasco County.
What Grows in Shady Hills
Every plant below cleared Shady Hills's own zone 9b and its 325-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Shady Hills?
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 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Shady Hills
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Shady Hills. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE STER PETRO LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PASCO CNTY-SHADY HILLS FIRE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BEST TOBACCO LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MAS2-22 4IN FLRD DOMESTIC WELL NEAR SPRINGHILL FLNitrate · 1.4 mi
- MARSHALLS TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- FORTNER TRACTOR SERVICEBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CIRCLE K # 2707644Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- CIRCLE K #2707644Brownfields · 2.1 mi
- FLORIDA CANCER SPECIALISTS & RESEARCH INSTITUTE LLCBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- CIRCLE K #1880Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- ADVANCE AUTO PARTS #9527Brownfields · 2.2 mi
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS #6609Brownfields · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shady Hills'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 Shady Hills.
Total Sites
407
within ~10 miles of Shady Hills
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
16 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Shady Hills
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Shady Hills
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 Shady Hills
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 Shady Hills average
Your land is one point inside Shady Hills
Everything above resolves to Shady Hills as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 18K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pasco 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 Shady Hills Average
Shady Hills Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Shady Hills
- ●One soil character for all of Shady Hills
- ●Frost dates read at Shady Hills's scale: Jan 27 to Dec 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shady Hills's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Shady Hills
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shady Hills, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shady Hills averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shady Hills — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shady Hills average
How we know this about Shady Hills
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 Pasco 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 Shady Hills
When does frost risk typically end in Shady Hills?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shady Hills typically lands around Jan 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Shady Hills?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Shady Hills typically arrives around Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 4, so the watching starts about Nov 18 — about 325 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Shady Hills?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shady Hills sees about 325 frost-free days — roughly Jan 27 through Dec 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 17 to Dec 4, about 290 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shady Hills?
The federal record around Shady Hills is a meaningful one — 407 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (185), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Shady Hills?
From about Nov 18 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Shady Hills's scale — its 9b band and its 325-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shady Hills'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 Shady Hills’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Shady Hills's own scale — the 18,332 acres it covers and 407 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shady Hills's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 407 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Shady Hills, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Shady Hills's boundary and the 18,332 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~325-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Shady Hills's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Shady Hills has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pasco County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Shady Hills's 18,332 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pasco County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pasco 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 Pasco County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Shady Hills's 18,332 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Shady Hills you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,332 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Shady Hills-wide figureread your own land →
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