Axis, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — 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 Axis, 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 Axis 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 Axis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Axis — the short answer
Axis, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Axis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Axis's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Axis
Each reading below is measured for Axis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAxis runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Axis) — 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
MeasuredAxis sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Axis is in
Axis sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Axis's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mobile County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Axis
Every plant below cleared Axis's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Axis?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Axis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Axis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Well M-2 T.L. BAXTER Mobile Cnty ALNitrate · 0.7 mi
- SUNBELT RENTALS PC 1342Brownfields · 0.8 mi
- EXPRESS CONTAINER SERVICES OF CREOLA LLCBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- REDWING CARRIERS, INCSuperfund · 0.8 mi
- SUTTLES TRUCK LEASINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RENTOKIL INITIAL ENV SERVICES/TRIMACUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- RANGER RESOURCES & LOGISTICS, LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- RENTOKIL INITIAL ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES LLCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- STOP AND SHOP #5 (CREOLA EXXON)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TERRY BAILEY ENTERPRISESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- WEAVER & SONSBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- SSAB ALABAMA INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Axis'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 Axis.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Axis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Axis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Axis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Axis — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (23 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Axis
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 Axis average
Your land is one point inside Axis
Everything above resolves to Axis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Axis Average
Axis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Axis
- ●One soil character for all of Axis
- ●Frost dates read at Axis's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Axis's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Axis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Axis, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Axis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Axis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Axis average
How we know this about Axis
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 Mobile 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 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 Axis
When does frost risk typically end in Axis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Axis typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Axis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Axis typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Axis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Axis sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Axis?
The federal record around Axis runs heavier than most — 211 documented sites, mostly Brownfields entries (95), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Axis?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Axis's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Axis'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 Axis’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Axis's own scale — the 2,237 acres it covers and 211 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Axis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 211 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Axis, the closest Nitrate record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Axis's boundary and the 2,237 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Axis sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Axis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Axis's 2,237 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile 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 Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Axis's 2,237 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Axis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,237 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Axis-wide figureread your own land →
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