Spring Ridge, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Spring Ridge, 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 Spring Ridge 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 Spring Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Spring Ridge — the short answer
Spring Ridge, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 298 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 11
- Gilchrist County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Gilchrist County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~298
- Gilchrist County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Gilchrist County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Spring Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Spring Ridge's 298-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Spring Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Spring Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSpring Ridge runs about 298 days between hard freezes (read from Gilchrist County, the closest normal to Spring Ridge) — 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
MeasuredSpring Ridge sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Spring Ridge is in
Spring Ridge sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Spring Ridge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Gilchrist County.
What Grows in Spring Ridge
Every plant below cleared Spring Ridge's own zone 9a and its 298-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Spring Ridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Spring Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Spring Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ANN3413Nitrate · 1700 ft
- ANN3425Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- CROSSROADS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MSFMW3Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- O'STEEN J BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HUDSON JIFFY FOOD STORE #1580Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ANN3412Nitrate · 1.6 mi
- CCDA WATERS, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 2.1 mi
- DOT - Maint. Office at SR 47 & 138Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- CRAGGS WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- DUKE ENERGY FLORIDA LLC COUNTY LINE SOLARBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- ANN3416Nitrate · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Spring Ridge'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 Spring Ridge.
Total Sites
142
within ~10 miles of Spring Ridge
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Spring Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Spring Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Spring Ridge, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 44 sites within ~10 miles of Spring Ridge. 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 Spring Ridge
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 Spring Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Spring Ridge
Everything above resolves to Spring Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Gilchrist 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 Spring Ridge Average
Spring Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Spring Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Spring Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Spring Ridge's scale: Feb 11 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Spring Ridge's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Spring Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Spring Ridge, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Spring Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Spring Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Spring Ridge average
How we know this about Spring Ridge
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 Gilchrist 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 Spring Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Spring Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Ridge typically lands around Feb 11, 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 Mar 4.
When is the first frost in Spring Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Spring Ridge typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 298 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Spring Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Spring Ridge sees about 298 frost-free days — roughly Feb 11 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 4 to Nov 22, about 263 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Spring Ridge?
The federal record around Spring Ridge shows 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Spring Ridge?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Spring Ridge's scale — its 9a band and its 298-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Spring Ridge'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 Spring Ridge’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Spring Ridge's own scale — the 2,056 acres it covers and 142 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Spring Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 142 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Spring Ridge, the closest Nitrate record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Spring Ridge's boundary and the 2,056 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~298-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Spring Ridge's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Spring Ridge has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Gilchrist County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Spring Ridge's 2,056 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Gilchrist County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Gilchrist 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 Gilchrist County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Spring Ridge's 2,056 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Spring Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,056 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Spring Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaSpring Ridge sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides