South Venice, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in South Venice, 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 Venice 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 Venice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
South Venice — the short answer
South Venice, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- Town area
- 4K 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 10a is South Venice's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Venice'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 Venice
Each reading below is measured for South Venice itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSouth Venice 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 Venice is in
South Venice sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Venice's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sarasota County.
What Grows in South Venice
Every plant below cleared South Venice's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near South Venice
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Venice. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AMOCO #207Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KMART #3464Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FDEP DSCP SITE D463 ID #529502349Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- BILL BUCK CHEVROLETBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- COASTAL MART #630Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHWEST PETRO HOLDINGS LLC 03Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHLAND OIL SUPPLY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WAWA FLORIDA LLC #5216Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- FPL S VENICE SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- BATES R V EXCHANGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AAMCO TRANSMISSIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TIRE KINGDOM #6022Brownfields · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Venice'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 Venice.
Total Sites
517
within ~10 miles of South Venice
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Venice
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Venice
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Venice, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 162 sites within ~10 miles of South Venice. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Venice
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 Venice average
Your land is one point inside South Venice
Everything above resolves to South Venice as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Venice Average
South Venice Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across South Venice
- ●One soil character for all of South Venice
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Venice's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Venice
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Venice, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Venice averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Venice — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Venice average
How we know this about South Venice
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 Venice
Is it too late to plant in South Venice?
No — South Venice 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 Venice?
It doesn't — South Venice 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 Venice?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for South Venice 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 Venice?
The federal record around South Venice is a meaningful one — 517 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (198), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Venice's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of South Venice'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 Venice’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Venice's own scale — the 3,812 acres it covers and 517 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Venice's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering South Venice — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 517 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Venice, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Venice's boundary and the 3,812 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear South Venice's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Venice's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Venice's 3,812 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sarasota County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sarasota 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 Sarasota County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Venice's 3,812 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Venice you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,812 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Venice-wide figureread your own land →