Tampa, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 10a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, artichoke, meyer lemon, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Tampa, 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 Tampa 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 Tampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Tampa — the short answer
Tampa, Florida: USDA zone 10a, no 28°F killing freeze on record — the season is year-round, across 73K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 10a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Killing freeze
- None on record
- NOAA RCC ACIS 1991–2020, this town’s own record
- City area
- 73K 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 Tampa's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tampa'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 Tampa
Each reading below is measured for Tampa itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Winter hardiness
MeasuredTampa 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 Tampa is in
Tampa sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tampa's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hillsborough County.
What Grows in Tampa
Every plant below cleared Tampa's own zone 10a. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
What's on the federal record near Tampa
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tampa. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WESTSHORE SQUARESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- HENRY GONZALEZ PLUMBING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- AMOCO #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- PLAZA LIQUORSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- SUPER MARIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JIMMYS SOD COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- ALPINE FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- GULF TILE DISTRIBUTORS OF FL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VILLAZON & COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AT&T SERVICES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- KOTLER, ARNOLD & FALK, LAWRENCEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TIRE SHACKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tampa'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 Tampa.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tampa
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tampa
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tampa, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 61 sites within ~10 miles of Tampa. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Tampa
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 Tampa average
Your land is one point inside Tampa
Everything above resolves to Tampa as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 73K 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 Tampa Average
Tampa Average
- ●USDA Zones 10a, averaged across Tampa
- ●One soil character for all of Tampa
- ●State-average frost dates
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tampa's 10a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tampa
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tampa, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tampa averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tampa — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tampa average
How we know this about Tampa
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 Tampa
Is it too late to plant in Tampa?
No — Tampa 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 Tampa?
It doesn't — Tampa 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 Tampa?
Year-round — the 1991–2020 station record for Tampa 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 Tampa?
The federal record around Tampa runs heavier than most — 3,890 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,053), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Tampa's scale — its 10a band and its no killing freeze on record. Your yard writes its own version of Tampa'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 Tampa’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tampa's own scale — the 73,272 acres it covers and 3,890 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tampa's own USDA hardiness band, zones 10aUSDA PHZM 2023
- No 28°F killing freeze in the 30-year station record covering Tampa — a year-round growing seasonNOAA Regional Climate Centers ACIS, 1991-2020
- 3,890 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tampa, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tampa's boundary and the 73,272 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear Tampa's hardiness zoneGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tampa's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tampa's 73,272 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hillsborough County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hillsborough 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 Hillsborough County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tampa's 73,272 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tampa you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 73,272 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Tampa-wide figureread your own land →