Weeki Wachee Gardens, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include okra, meyer lemon, california poppy, and artichoke — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Weeki Wachee Gardens, 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Weeki Wachee Gardens — the short answer
Weeki Wachee Gardens, Florida: USDA zone 9b, about 321 days between hard freezes, across 803 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 2
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 20
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~321
- Hernando County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 803 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 Hernando County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9b is Weeki Wachee Gardens's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Weeki Wachee Gardens's 321-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Weeki Wachee Gardens
Each reading below is measured for Weeki Wachee Gardens itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWeeki Wachee Gardens runs about 321 days between hard freezes (read from Hernando County, the closest normal to Weeki Wachee Gardens) — 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
MeasuredWeeki Wachee Gardens 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens is in
Weeki Wachee Gardens sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Weeki Wachee Gardens's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hernando County.
What Grows in Weeki Wachee Gardens
Every plant below cleared Weeki Wachee Gardens's own zone 9b and its 321-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 5; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 2 (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 Weeki Wachee Gardens
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Weeki Wachee Gardens. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WEEKI WACHEE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- ALL AMERICAN OIL, LLC SR 183Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CLARKS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TONY KNOWLES PROPERTYBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- HERNANDO BEACH MARINABrownfields · 2.6 mi
- STERLING MARINABrownfields · 2.6 mi
- HAROLD'S AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- GORDONS TIRE & AUTO CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HOME DEPOT STORE #281Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- A & J DISCOUNT BEVERAGESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HERNANDO PETROLEUM LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- HERNANDO BEACH SEAFOOD INCBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Weeki Wachee Gardens'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 Weeki Wachee Gardens.
Total Sites
198
within ~10 miles of Weeki Wachee Gardens
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Weeki Wachee Gardens
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Weeki Wachee Gardens
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 Weeki Wachee Gardens
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 Weeki Wachee Gardens average
Your land is one point inside Weeki Wachee Gardens
Everything above resolves to Weeki Wachee Gardens as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 803 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Hernando 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens Average
Weeki Wachee Gardens Average
- ●USDA Zones 9b, averaged across Weeki Wachee Gardens
- ●One soil character for all of Weeki Wachee Gardens
- ●Frost dates read at Weeki Wachee Gardens's scale: Feb 2 to Dec 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Weeki Wachee Gardens's 9b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Weeki Wachee Gardens
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Weeki Wachee Gardens, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Weeki Wachee Gardens averages can't show:
We read public map data around Weeki Wachee Gardens — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Weeki Wachee Gardens average
How we know this about Weeki Wachee Gardens
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 Hernando 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens
When does frost risk typically end in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Weeki Wachee Gardens typically lands around Feb 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Weeki Wachee Gardens 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 321 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Weeki Wachee Gardens sees about 321 frost-free days — roughly Feb 2 through Dec 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 23 to Dec 6, about 286 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
The federal record around Weeki Wachee Gardens shows 198 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (96), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Weeki Wachee Gardens?
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 Weeki Wachee Gardens's scale — its 9b band and its 321-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Weeki Wachee Gardens'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 Weeki Wachee Gardens’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Weeki Wachee Gardens's own scale — the 803 acres it covers and 198 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Weeki Wachee Gardens's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 198 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Weeki Wachee Gardens, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Weeki Wachee Gardens's boundary and the 803 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9b and a ~321-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Weeki Wachee Gardens's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Weeki Wachee Gardens has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Hernando County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Weeki Wachee Gardens's 803 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hernando County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hernando 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 Hernando County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Weeki Wachee Gardens's 803 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Weeki Wachee Gardens you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 803 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Weeki Wachee Gardens-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaWeeki Wachee Gardens sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides