Wallace, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Wallace, 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 Wallace 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 Wallace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Wallace — the short answer
Wallace, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 299 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~299
- Santa Rosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Santa Rosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Wallace's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wallace's 299-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wallace
Each reading below is measured for Wallace itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWallace runs about 299 days between hard freezes (read from Santa Rosa County, the closest normal to Wallace) — 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
MeasuredWallace sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Wallace is in
Wallace sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wallace's own centroid rather than borrowed from Santa Rosa County.
What Grows in Wallace
Every plant below cleared Wallace's own zone 9a and its 299-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wallace?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
Documented around Wallace
Spotted lanternfly documented 31 miles from Wallace, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Wallace
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wallace. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CHUMUCKLA WATER SYSTEM, INC.PFAS · 25 ft
- WHITLEY LUTHER IUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- FOREVER BRONZE TANNING SALONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- SANTA ROSA SPORTS PLEXBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CIRCLE K #2704967Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TOM THUMB FOOD STORE #30Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1572Brownfields · 2.4 mi
- FIVE FLAGS PIPE LINE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- THOMAS L SIMS MIDDLE SCHOOLBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- HEAD TO TOEBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- WALMART 2467Brownfields · 3.3 mi
- USGS TEST WELL A W5008Nitrate · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wallace'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 Wallace.
Total Sites
480
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
10 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wallace
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wallace, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wallace — Superfund (10 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wallace
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 Wallace average
Your land is one point inside Wallace
Everything above resolves to Wallace as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Santa Rosa 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 Wallace Average
Wallace Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Wallace
- ●One soil character for all of Wallace
- ●Frost dates read at Wallace's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wallace's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wallace
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wallace, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wallace averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wallace — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wallace average
How we know this about Wallace
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 Santa Rosa 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 Wallace
When does frost risk typically end in Wallace?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wallace typically lands around Feb 10, 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 Mar 3.
When is the first frost in Wallace?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wallace typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 299 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wallace?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wallace sees about 299 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 22, about 264 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wallace?
The federal record around Wallace is a meaningful one — 480 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (195), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wallace?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wallace's scale — its 9a band and its 299-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wallace'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 Wallace’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wallace's own scale — the 7,529 acres it covers and 480 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wallace's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 480 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wallace, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wallace's boundary and the 7,529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~299-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wallace's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Wallacelydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wallace has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Santa Rosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wallace's 7,529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Santa Rosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Santa Rosa 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 Santa Rosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wallace's 7,529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wallace you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wallace-wide figureread your own land →