South Miami Heights, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Miami Heights, 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 Miami Heights 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 Miami Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Miami Heights — the short answer
South Miami Heights, Florida: USDA zone 10b, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 3K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. The year-round finding is measured — a 30-year record with no 28°F killing freeze in it — never inferred from missing dates.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 10b is South Miami Heights's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Miami Heights's no killing freeze on record, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Miami Heights
Each reading below is measured for South Miami Heights itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSouth Miami Heights sits in USDA hardiness zone 10b.
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 Miami Heights is in
South Miami Heights sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at South Miami Heights's own centroid rather than borrowed from Miami-Dade County.
What Grows in South Miami Heights
Every plant below cleared South Miami Heights's own zone 10b. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near South Miami Heights
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Miami Heights. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST ANNES NURSING CTR,ST ANNES RESIDENCE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- DADE COUNTY S MIAMI HEIGHTS ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 1600 ft
- QUAIL ROOST PLAZAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- JACKWAY CORP #668Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SUNSHINE #223Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WINN-DIXIE #0387Brownfields · 2500 ft
- CHEVRON STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DADE COUNTY CARIBBEAN ELEMENTARYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- 7-ELEVEN FOOD STORE #22952-34Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5136Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- MIAMI SOUTHRIDGE SR HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- FREEDOM OIL STATION INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Miami Heights'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 Miami Heights.
Total Sites
1,469
within ~10 miles of South Miami Heights
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Miami Heights
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Miami Heights
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Miami Heights, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 396 sites within ~10 miles of South Miami Heights. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in South Miami Heights
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 Miami Heights average
Your land is one point inside South Miami Heights
Everything above resolves to South Miami Heights as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 South Miami Heights Average
South Miami Heights Average
- ●USDA Zones 10b, averaged across South Miami Heights
- ●One soil character for all of South Miami Heights
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Miami Heights's 10b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Miami Heights
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Miami Heights, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Miami Heights averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Miami Heights — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Miami Heights average
How we know this about South Miami Heights
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, with the labelled statewide window where none resolves; 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 South Miami Heights
Is it too late to plant in South Miami Heights?
No — South Miami Heights has no 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record, so the growing season is year-round and there is no last-frost date to wait for. Planting is paced by rainfall, heat and daylength instead of by frost: start heat-lovers any month, and time cool-season crops (lettuce, brassicas, peas) for the cooler, wetter half of the year or for higher ground. Succession sowing every few weeks works all year, so the limit is what you can keep watered and harvested, not the calendar.
When does frost risk typically end in South Miami Heights?
It doesn't — South Miami Heights records no 28°F killing freeze at all across the 1991–2020 station record, so there is no spring frost date to plant after. Cold still matters with elevation: the higher you garden, the cooler the nights, and a few tropical crops sulk below about 60°F even where they never freeze.
How long is the growing season in South Miami Heights?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for South Miami Heights contains no 28°F killing freeze, so there is no season to measure between freezes. What paces planting instead is heat, rainfall and daylength: the hottest, wettest stretch is the hard part for cool-season crops, not winter. Elevation is the one real exception — the higher you garden, the colder the nights get.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Miami Heights?
The federal record around South Miami Heights is a meaningful one — 1,469 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (564), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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.
Everything above is measured at South Miami Heights's scale — its 10b band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of South Miami Heights'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 Miami Heights’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Miami Heights's own scale — the 3,141 acres it covers and 1,469 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Miami Heights's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10bUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering South Miami Heights — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 1,469 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Miami Heights, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Miami Heights's boundary and the 3,141 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear South Miami Heights's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Miami Heights'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 Miami Heights's 3,141 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Miami-Dade County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Miami-Dade 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 Miami-Dade County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Miami Heights's 3,141 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Miami Heights you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,141 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Miami Heights-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaSouth Miami Heights sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides