Sweetwater, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 11a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, starfruit, allspice, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Sweetwater, 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 Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Sweetwater — the short answer
Sweetwater, Florida: USDA zone 11a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 11a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 2K 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 11a is Sweetwater's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sweetwater'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 Sweetwater
Each reading below is measured for Sweetwater itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredSweetwater sits in USDA hardiness zone 11a.
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 Sweetwater is in
Sweetwater sits in the Southern Florida Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Tropical Wet Forests. That is read at Sweetwater's own centroid rather than borrowed from Miami-Dade County.
What Grows in Sweetwater
Every plant below cleared Sweetwater's own zone 11a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Sweetwater
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sweetwater. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 5 STAR TOURS LTDBrownfields · 550 ft
- J&J SERVICE CTRUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- TARMAC FL-CORAL AGGREGATE QUARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MIAMI DADE WATER & SEWER PUMP STA #121Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- EDGECONNEX MIAMI HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- TELEMUNDO CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FL HIGHWAY PATROLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FL DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION-MINI SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- G - 275Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- G -3106Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- OZINGA READY-MIX CONCRETE-DORALToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- UTI UNITED STATES INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sweetwater'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 Sweetwater.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sweetwater
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sweetwater
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Sweetwater
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 Sweetwater average
Your land is one point inside Sweetwater
Everything above resolves to Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater Average
Sweetwater Average
- ●USDA Zones 11a, averaged across Sweetwater
- ●One soil character for all of Sweetwater
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sweetwater's 11a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sweetwater
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sweetwater, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sweetwater averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sweetwater — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sweetwater average
How we know this about Sweetwater
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, 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 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 Sweetwater
Is it too late to plant in Sweetwater?
No — Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater?
It doesn't — Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Sweetwater 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 Sweetwater?
The federal record around Sweetwater runs heavier than most — 3,633 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,512), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Sweetwater's scale — its 11a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Sweetwater'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 Sweetwater’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sweetwater's own scale — the 2,477 acres it covers and 3,633 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sweetwater's own USDA hardiness band, zones 11aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Sweetwater — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 3,633 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sweetwater, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sweetwater's boundary and the 2,477 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Sweetwater's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sweetwater'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 Sweetwater's 2,477 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 Sweetwater's 2,477 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sweetwater you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,477 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Sweetwater-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaSweetwater sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides