St. George Island, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 St. George Island, 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 St. George Island 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 St. George Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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St. George Island — the short answer
St. George Island, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 333 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 22
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 21
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~333
- Franklin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Franklin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is St. George Island's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against St. George Island's 333-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in St. George Island
Each reading below is measured for St. George Island itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSt. George Island runs about 333 days between hard freezes (read from Franklin County, the closest normal to St. George Island) — 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
MeasuredSt. George Island 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 St. George Island is in
St. George Island sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at St. George Island's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in St. George Island
Every plant below cleared St. George Island's own zone 9b and its 333-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in St. George Island?
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 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 21 — 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 St. George Island
Closest first, within ~10 miles of St. George Island. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ST GEORGE ISLAND UTILITY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LESLIE L LEMIEUX JRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- EXPRESS LANE #89Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- LOCAL STORE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- ST.GEORGE ISL.EXPL.WELLNitrate · 3.7 mi
- EXPRESS LANE #88Underground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- EXPRESS LANE #714 - FL0029Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- SWIFTY MART #181Underground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- BROWN'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- ARDS SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- SPORTMANS LODGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- BUCHANAN PROPERTYUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from St. George Island'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 St. George Island.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of St. George Island
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of St. George Island
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around St. George Island, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 34 sites within ~10 miles of St. George Island. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in St. George Island
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 St. George Island average
Your land is one point inside St. George Island
Everything above resolves to St. George Island as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Franklin 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 St. George Island Average
St. George Island Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across St. George Island
- ●One soil character for all of St. George Island
- ●Frost dates read at St. George Island's scale: Jan 22 to Dec 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not St. George Island's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in St. George Island
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in St. George Island, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that St. George Island averages can't show:
We read public map data around St. George Island — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the St. George Island average
How we know this about St. George Island
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 Franklin 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 St. George Island
When does frost risk typically end in St. George Island?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in St. George Island typically lands around Jan 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in St. George Island?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in St. George Island typically arrives around Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 7, so the watching starts about Nov 21 — about 333 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in St. George Island?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, St. George Island sees about 333 frost-free days — roughly Jan 22 through Dec 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 12 to Dec 7, about 298 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in St. George Island?
The federal record around St. George Island is light — 40 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in St. George Island?
From about Nov 21 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at St. George Island's scale — its 9b band and its 333-day season. Your yard writes its own version of St. George Island'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 St. George Island’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at St. George Island's own scale — the 3,043 acres it covers and 40 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- St. George Island's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 40 documented contamination sites on the federal record near St. George Island, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- St. George Island's boundary and the 3,043 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~333-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at St. George Island's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — St. George Island has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Franklin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so St. George Island's 3,043 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among St. George Island's 3,043 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of St. George Island you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,043 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 St. George Island-wide figureread your own land →