Sustainable Living
Growing in USDA Zone 10A
What to plant, when to plant it, and what will never survive here.
Montura is USDA Hardiness Zone 10A — winter lows of 30–35°F, a defined wet season, and 9+ months of growing weather. Your planting calendar is upside-down from the rest of the country: tomatoes go in the ground in September, not May, and summer is for cover crops and tropicals. Learn the zone and you can grow food year-round.
Hands-on training
Sign up for the Montura Garden Club class
What to plant when in Zone 10A — vegetables, fruit trees, and natives.
Cool Season (Oct–Mar)
This is the main vegetable season. Tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash, broccoli, cabbage, kale, lettuce, carrots, onions, garlic, peas, and herbs. Plant in October and harvest through March before the heat returns.
Warm Season (Apr–Sep)
Heat and humidity wipe out most northern vegetables. Stick with sweet potatoes, okra, southern peas, malabar spinach, roselle, cassava, boniato, pigeon peas, tropical pumpkin (calabaza), and Seminole pumpkin. Use the summer to build soil with sunn hemp or cowpea cover crops.
Trees & Perennials That Thrive
Mango, avocado, citrus, banana, papaya, starfruit, sapodilla, guava, mulberry, loquat, jackfruit, sugar apple, longan, lychee, moringa, and coconut palm (with cold protection). Plant fruit trees in the cooler months so roots establish before summer.
What Will NOT Survive
Apples, peaches (most varieties), cherries, lilacs, peonies, tulips, rhubarb, and most cool-climate berries. Don't waste money on plants bred for Zone 6–8 no matter what the big-box store puts on the shelf.
Frost Protection
A handful of nights per year drop below 35°F. Cover tender tropicals with frost cloth or sheets, string old-school incandescent Christmas lights for warmth, and water the ground (not the leaves) before a freeze.
Helpful Links
Have information to add to this page? Email hello@monturacivic.com