Tavares, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Tavares, 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 Tavares 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 Tavares — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tavares — the short answer
Tavares, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 328 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Jan 26
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~328
- Lake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Lake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Tavares's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tavares's 328-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tavares
Each reading below is measured for Tavares itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsTavares runs about 328 days between hard freezes (read from Lake County, the closest normal to Tavares) — 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
MeasuredTavares 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 Tavares is in
Tavares sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tavares's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lake County.
What Grows in Tavares
Every plant below cleared Tavares's own zone 9b and its 328-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tavares?
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 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 20 — 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 Tavares
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tavares. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOUIS R BOWENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LAKE CNTY ASTATULA II FUELING STATUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LAKE COUNTY SCHOOLS WAREHOUSEBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MORRELL GROVE MANAGEMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLEETLINE HOMES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TAVARES MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SPENCER FABRICATIONS INCBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- GROVE CARETAKERS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- AAA REFUSE SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CIRCLE K #2722407Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BRYANTS LAND CLEARING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1535Brownfields · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tavares'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 Tavares.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tavares
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tavares
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tavares, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Tavares — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (418 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Tavares
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 Tavares average
Your land is one point inside Tavares
Everything above resolves to Tavares as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lake County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Tavares Average
Tavares Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Tavares
- ●One soil character for all of Tavares
- ●Frost dates read at Tavares's scale: Jan 26 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tavares's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tavares
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tavares, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tavares averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tavares — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tavares average
How we know this about Tavares
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 at Lake 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 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 Tavares
When does frost risk typically end in Tavares?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tavares typically lands around Jan 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Tavares?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tavares typically arrives around Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 6, so the watching starts about Nov 20 — about 328 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tavares?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tavares sees about 328 frost-free days — roughly Jan 26 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 16 to Dec 6, about 293 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tavares?
The federal record around Tavares is a meaningful one — 666 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (418), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Tavares?
From about Nov 20 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tavares's scale — its 9b band and its 328-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tavares'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 Tavares’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Tavares's own scale — the 7,899 acres it covers and 666 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tavares's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 666 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tavares, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tavares's boundary and the 7,899 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~328-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tavares's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Tavares has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tavares's 7,899 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lake 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 Lake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tavares's 7,899 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tavares you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,899 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Tavares-wide figureread your own land →
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