Williston Highlands, Florida, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Williston Highlands, 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 Williston Highlands 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 Williston Highlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Williston Highlands — the short answer
Williston Highlands, Florida: USDA zone 9a, about 310 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 3
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~310
- Levy County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Levy County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Williston Highlands's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Williston Highlands's 310-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Williston Highlands
Each reading below is measured for Williston Highlands itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWilliston Highlands runs about 310 days between hard freezes (read from Levy County, the closest normal to Williston Highlands) — 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
MeasuredWilliston Highlands 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 Williston Highlands is in
Williston Highlands sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Williston Highlands's own centroid rather than borrowed from Levy County.
What Grows in Williston Highlands
Every plant below cleared Williston Highlands's own zone 9a and its 310-day season. Each card opens that plant's Florida profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Williston Highlands?
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 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Williston Highlands
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Williston Highlands. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J C PENDRAY & SONS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- OLD WINDMILL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- WILLIAMS FRANKUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- SANDLIN ARTHUR MUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- HART FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- JOYNERS REPAIR & RADIATOR SERVICEBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- HUDSON JIFFY #1121Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- B & G PRODUCEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HALE FARMING FREDDIEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- WILLISTON AIRPORT FBOBrownfields · 4.2 mi
- WILLISTON CITYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- SEABRING MARINE INDUSTRIES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Williston Highlands'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 Williston Highlands.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of Williston Highlands
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Williston Highlands
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Williston Highlands
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Williston Highlands, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Williston Highlands. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Williston Highlands
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 Williston Highlands average
Your land is one point inside Williston Highlands
Everything above resolves to Williston Highlands as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Levy 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 Williston Highlands Average
Williston Highlands Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Williston Highlands
- ●One soil character for all of Williston Highlands
- ●Frost dates read at Williston Highlands's scale: Feb 3 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Williston Highlands's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Williston Highlands
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Williston Highlands, Florida — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Williston Highlands averages can't show:
We read public map data around Williston Highlands — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Williston Highlands average
How we know this about Williston Highlands
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 Levy 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 Williston Highlands
When does frost risk typically end in Williston Highlands?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Williston Highlands typically lands around Feb 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Williston Highlands?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Williston Highlands typically arrives around Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 26, so the watching starts about Nov 10 — about 310 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Williston Highlands?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Williston Highlands sees about 310 frost-free days — roughly Feb 3 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 24 to Nov 26, about 275 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Williston Highlands?
The federal record around Williston Highlands shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Williston Highlands?
From about Nov 10 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Williston Highlands's scale — its 9a band and its 310-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Williston Highlands'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 Williston Highlands’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Williston Highlands's own scale — the 7,244 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Williston Highlands's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Williston Highlands, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Williston Highlands's boundary and the 7,244 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~310-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Williston Highlands's own centroid, the Southern Coastal PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Williston Highlands has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Levy County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Williston Highlands's 7,244 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Levy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Levy 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 Levy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Williston Highlands's 7,244 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Williston Highlands you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,244 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.0 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 Williston Highlands-wide figureread your own land →
More in Florida
Wider growing context
What grows across FloridaWilliston Highlands sits outside our named growing regions, so Florida as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides