South Bay, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in South Bay, 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 South Bay 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 South Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Bay — the short answer
South Bay, Florida: USDA zone 10a, about 330 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~330
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 10a is South Bay's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Bay's 330-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Bay
Each reading below is measured for South Bay itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Bay runs about 330 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
MeasuredSouth Bay 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 South Bay is in
South Bay sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at South Bay's own centroid rather than borrowed from Palm Beach County.
What Grows in South Bay
Every plant below cleared South Bay'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 South Bay?
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. 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 South Bay
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Bay. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEST PALM BEACH READY MIXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- SOUTH BAY CITY - WTPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SOUTH BAY CITY-MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MARKHAM J WUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- PB -1423Nitrate · 0.8 mi
- FLORIDA DEPBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FL DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION TERRYTOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- FPL SOUTH BAY SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- DONALD MOSS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- SOUTH BAY JIFFYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PRIDE SOUTH BAYBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- MULO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Bay'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 South Bay.
Total Sites
248
within ~10 miles of South Bay
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Bay
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Bay
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Bay, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of South Bay. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in South Bay
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 South Bay average
Your land is one point inside South Bay
Everything above resolves to South Bay as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 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 South Bay Average
South Bay Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across South Bay
- ●One soil character for all of South Bay
- ●Frost dates read at South Bay's scale: Jan 19 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Bay's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Bay
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Bay, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Bay averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Bay — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Bay average
How we know this about South Bay
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 South Bay’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 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 South Bay
When does frost risk typically end in South Bay?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Bay 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 South Bay?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Bay 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 South Bay?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Bay 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 South Bay?
The federal record around South Bay is a meaningful one — 248 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (123), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 South Bay?
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 South Bay's scale — its 10a band and its 330-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Bay'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 South Bay’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Bay's own scale — its own ~330-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,832 acres it covers and 248 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Bay's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Bay's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Jan 19 and Dec 15 and the ~330-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 248 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Bay, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Bay's boundary and the 1,832 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 South Bay's own centroid, the Southern Florida Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Bay's 1,832 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Palm Beach County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Palm Beach 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 Palm Beach County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Bay's 1,832 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Bay you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,832 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 South Bay-wide figureread your own land →
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