Anderson, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Anderson, 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 Anderson 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 Anderson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anderson — the short answer
Anderson, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 827 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 827 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 7b is Anderson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anderson's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anderson
Each reading below is measured for Anderson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnderson runs about 238 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
MeasuredAnderson sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Anderson is in
Anderson sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Anderson's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lauderdale County.
What Grows in Anderson
Every plant below cleared Anderson's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anderson?
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 Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Anderson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anderson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Well A-60 USGS Lauderdale Cnty ALNitrate · 0.6 mi
- STEWARTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANDERSON PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WOODYS AUTO PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANDERSON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CLEMS MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- H E GLASS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DAYBREAK FARMSCAFO · 2.5 mi
- ROMINE FARMSCAFO · 2.5 mi
- WHITES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Well S-50 IRVING BEDDINGFIELD Lauderdale Cnty ALNitrate · 3.8 mi
- HAMMOND FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anderson'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 Anderson.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of Anderson
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anderson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anderson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anderson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Anderson — PFAS (3 sites) and CAFO (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Anderson
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 Anderson average
Your land is one point inside Anderson
Everything above resolves to Anderson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 827 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 Anderson Average
Anderson Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Anderson
- ●One soil character for all of Anderson
- ●Frost dates read at Anderson's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anderson's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anderson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anderson, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anderson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anderson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anderson average
How we know this about Anderson
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 Anderson’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 Anderson
When does frost risk typically end in Anderson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anderson typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Anderson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anderson typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anderson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anderson sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 28, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anderson?
The federal record around Anderson shows 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (85), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Anderson?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anderson's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anderson'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 Anderson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Anderson's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 827 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anderson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anderson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 11 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anderson, the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anderson's boundary and the 827 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Anderson's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anderson's 827 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lauderdale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anderson's 827 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anderson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 827 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.6 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 Anderson-wide figureread your own land →