The Villages, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in The Villages, 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 The Villages 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 The Villages — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
The Villages — the short answer
The Villages, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 312 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 6
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 15
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~312
- Sumter County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 21K 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 Sumter County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is The Villages's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against The Villages's 312-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in The Villages
Each reading below is measured for The Villages itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsThe Villages runs about 312 days between hard freezes (read from Sumter County, the closest normal to The Villages) — 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
MeasuredThe Villages 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 The Villages is in
The Villages sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at The Villages's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumter County.
What Grows in The Villages
Every plant below cleared The Villages's own zone 9b and its 312-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in The Villages?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near The Villages
Closest first, within ~10 miles of The Villages. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LADY LAKE POST OFFICESuperfund · 1.3 mi
- WINN-DIXIE #2523Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- LITTLE SUMTER UTILITIES 3WPSPFAS · 1.6 mi
- NORTH SUMTER UTILITY 3WPSPFAS · 1.6 mi
- VILLAGE DERMATOLOGY AND COSMETIC SURGERYBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- THE VILLAGES MERCURY SPILLSuperfund · 2.3 mi
- CIRCLE K #2707565Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- DOMINION METAL RECYCLING CENTER- WILDWOODBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1080Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- CEMEX WILDWOODToxics Release Inventory · 2.4 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1705Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- CIRCLE K # 2707690Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from The Villages'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 The Villages.
Total Sites
490
within ~10 miles of The Villages
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
8 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of The Villages
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of The Villages
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around The Villages, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of The Villages — PFAS (12 sites) and Superfund (8 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in The Villages
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 Villages average
Your land is one point inside The Villages
Everything above resolves to The Villages as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 21K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Sumter 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 The Villages Average
The Villages Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across The Villages
- ●One soil character for all of The Villages
- ●Frost dates read at The Villages's scale: Feb 6 to Dec 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not The Villages's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in The Villages
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in The Villages, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Villages averages can't show:
We read public map data around The Villages — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Villages average
How we know this about The Villages
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 Sumter 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 The Villages
When does frost risk typically end in The Villages?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in The Villages typically lands around Feb 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in The Villages?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in The Villages typically arrives around Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Dec 1, so the watching starts about Nov 15 — about 312 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in The Villages?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, The Villages sees about 312 frost-free days — roughly Feb 6 through Dec 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 27 to Dec 1, about 277 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in The Villages?
The federal record around The Villages runs heavier than most — 490 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (266), the nearest Superfund record about 1.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in The Villages?
From about Nov 15 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at The Villages's scale — its 9b band and its 312-day season. Your yard writes its own version of The Villages'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 The Villages’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at The Villages's own scale — the 20,897 acres it covers and 490 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- The Villages's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 490 documented contamination sites on the federal record near The Villages, the closest Superfund record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- The Villages's boundary and the 20,897 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~312-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at The Villages's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — The Villages has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Sumter County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so The Villages's 20,897 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumter County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumter 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 Sumter County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among The Villages's 20,897 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of The Villages you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,897 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 1.3 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 The Villages-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaThe Villages sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides