Gulfport, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gulfport, 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 Gulfport 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 Gulfport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gulfport — the short answer
Gulfport, Mississippi: USDA zone 9a, about 309 days between hard freezes, across 36K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 4
- Harrison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 10
- Harrison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~309
- Harrison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 36K 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 Harrison County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gulfport's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulfport's 309-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulfport
Each reading below is measured for Gulfport itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGulfport runs about 309 days between hard freezes (read from Harrison County, the closest normal to Gulfport) — 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
MeasuredGulfport 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 Gulfport is in
Gulfport sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gulfport's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Harrison County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gulfport
Every plant below cleared Gulfport's own zone 9a and its 309-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gulfport?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 4 (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 Gulfport
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulfport. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Car Rental Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Ray C Weaver Mechanical Contractors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- MILLER MARINE SERVICEBrownfields · 1400 ft
- TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AT GULFPORT BILOXI INTERNATIONAL GPTBrownfields · 1700 ft
- CAVENHAM FOREST INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 2100 ft
- National Car RentalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Gulfport Biloxi Regional AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Former Hertz Rent-a-carUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Oms #13Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Northwest Airlines IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CAVENHAM FOREST INDUSTRIES INCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- 1108TH AVCRADBrownfields · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulfport'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 Gulfport.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulfport
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulfport
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 Gulfport
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 Gulfport average
Your land is one point inside Gulfport
Everything above resolves to Gulfport as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 36K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Harrison 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 Gulfport Average
Gulfport Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gulfport
- ●One soil character for all of Gulfport
- ●Frost dates read at Gulfport's scale: Feb 4 to Dec 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulfport's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulfport
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulfport, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulfport averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulfport — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulfport average
How we know this about Gulfport
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 Harrison 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 Gulfport
When does frost risk typically end in Gulfport?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gulfport typically lands around Feb 4, 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 25.
When is the first frost in Gulfport?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gulfport 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 309 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gulfport?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gulfport sees about 309 frost-free days — roughly Feb 4 through Dec 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Feb 25 to Nov 26, about 274 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulfport?
The federal record around Gulfport is a meaningful one — 958 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (400), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gulfport?
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 Gulfport's scale — its 9a band and its 309-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gulfport'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 Gulfport’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gulfport's own scale — the 35,599 acres it covers and 958 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulfport's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 958 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulfport, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulfport's boundary and the 35,599 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~309-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gulfport sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gulfport has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Harrison County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gulfport's 35,599 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Harrison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Harrison County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Harrison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulfport's 35,599 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulfport you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 35,599 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 Gulfport-wide figureread your own land →
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