Arab, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Arab, 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 Arab 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 Arab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Arab — the short answer
Arab, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Arab's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Arab's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Arab
Each reading below is measured for Arab itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArab runs about 261 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredArab 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 Arab is in
Arab sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Arab's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Arab
Every plant below cleared Arab's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Arab?
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 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Arab
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Arab. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARSHALL GOODYEAR TIRE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- VULCAN ARAB CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #774Brownfields · 1000 ft
- ALEXANDER SCOFIELD FORD INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- WAVAHO ARABUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- CITY OF ARAB SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4941Brownfields · 2000 ft
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #306Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- FUEL CITY ARAB (SS #93)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MURPHY USA #6890 ARABUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- AL0073Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF ARAB CARDLOCKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Arab'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 Arab.
Total Sites
182
within ~10 miles of Arab
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Arab
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Arab
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Arab, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Arab. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Arab
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 Arab average
Your land is one point inside Arab
Everything above resolves to Arab as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 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 Arab Average
Arab Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Arab
- ●One soil character for all of Arab
- ●Frost dates read at Arab's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Arab's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Arab
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Arab, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Arab averages can't show:
We read public map data around Arab — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Arab average
How we know this about Arab
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 Arab’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 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 Arab
When does frost risk typically end in Arab?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Arab 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 Arab?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Arab typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Arab?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Arab sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 12, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Arab?
The federal record around Arab is a meaningful one — 182 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (97), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Arab?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Arab's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Arab'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 Arab’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Arab's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,529 acres it covers and 182 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Arab's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Arab's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 26 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 182 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Arab, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Arab's boundary and the 8,529 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Arab's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Arab's 8,529 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Arab's 8,529 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Arab you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,529 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Arab-wide figureread your own land →
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