Alexander City, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Alexander City, 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 Alexander City 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 Alexander City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alexander City — the short answer
Alexander City, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 29K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 29K 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 Tallapoosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Alexander City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alexander City's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alexander City
Each reading below is measured for Alexander City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlexander City runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Tallapoosa County, the closest normal to Alexander City) — 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
MeasuredAlexander City 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 Alexander City is in
Alexander City sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alexander City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tallapoosa County.
What Grows in Alexander City
Every plant below cleared Alexander City's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alexander City?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Alexander City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alexander City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALEXANDER CITY WATER DEPARTMENTPFAS · 0 ft
- AC IN AND OUTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- FOSHEE'S WHATS LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- VICTORY FUELS #537Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- LAKE HILL MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1878Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- NORTH ALABAMA EXPRESS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #184Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ALLEN FOODMART #15Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- NEW MEDIA CENTER FOR CENTRAL ALABAMA COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- TEXACO AUTO CLINICUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CLOSEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alexander City'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 Alexander City.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Alexander City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alexander City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alexander City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alexander City, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 138 sites within ~10 miles of Alexander City. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Alexander City
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 Alexander City average
Your land is one point inside Alexander City
Everything above resolves to Alexander City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 29K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tallapoosa 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 Alexander City Average
Alexander City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Alexander City
- ●One soil character for all of Alexander City
- ●Frost dates read at Alexander City's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alexander City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alexander City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alexander City, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alexander City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alexander City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alexander City average
How we know this about Alexander City
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 Tallapoosa 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 Alexander City
When does frost risk typically end in Alexander City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alexander City typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Alexander City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alexander City typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alexander City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alexander City sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 8, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alexander City?
The federal record around Alexander City is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (138), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alexander City?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alexander City's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alexander City'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 Alexander City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alexander City's own scale — the 29,470 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alexander City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alexander City, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alexander City's boundary and the 29,470 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Alexander City's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alexander City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tallapoosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alexander City's 29,470 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallapoosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallapoosa 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 Tallapoosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alexander City's 29,470 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alexander City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 29,470 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Alexander City-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Growing region
Nearby growing guides