Abanda, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Abanda, 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 Abanda 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 Abanda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Abanda — the short answer
Abanda, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Abanda's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Abanda's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Abanda
Each reading below is measured for Abanda itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAbanda runs about 254 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredAbanda sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Abanda is in
Abanda sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Abanda's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chambers County.
What Grows in Abanda
Every plant below cleared Abanda's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Abanda?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Abanda
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Abanda. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COUNTY ROAD 139 CYANIDE BAGS SPILLSuperfund · 0.7 mi
- JIMMY WALKER SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HOMETOWN MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- TGPL STATION 0110Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- ALBRIGHT'S CORNER EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- ALBRIGHTS AC-124Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- WADLEY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- CALDWELL BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- PLANTATION PATTERNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- WADLEY HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 3.1 mi
- WADLEY HOLDING PRIMER SPILLSuperfund · 3.1 mi
- WADLEY HOLDINGS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Abanda'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 Abanda.
Total Sites
57
within ~10 miles of Abanda
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Abanda
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Abanda
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Abanda, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Abanda — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (37 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Abanda
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 Abanda average
Your land is one point inside Abanda
Everything above resolves to Abanda as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K acres. 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 Abanda Average
Abanda Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Abanda
- ●One soil character for all of Abanda
- ●Frost dates read at Abanda's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Abanda's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Abanda
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Abanda, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Abanda averages can't show:
We read public map data around Abanda — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Abanda average
How we know this about Abanda
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 Abanda’s own record; 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 Abanda
When does frost risk typically end in Abanda?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Abanda typically lands around Mar 11, 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 Apr 1.
When is the first frost in Abanda?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Abanda typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Abanda?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Abanda sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 6, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Abanda?
The federal record around Abanda is a meaningful one — 57 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (37), the nearest Superfund record about 0.7 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 Abanda?
From about Oct 21 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 Nov 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 Nov 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Abanda's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Abanda'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 Abanda’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Abanda's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,919 acres it covers and 57 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Abanda's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Abanda's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 20 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 57 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Abanda, the closest Superfund record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Abanda's boundary and the 1,919 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Abanda's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Abanda's 1,919 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chambers County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chambers County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Chambers County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Abanda's 1,919 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Abanda you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,919 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record about 0.7 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 Abanda-wide figureread your own land →
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