Berry, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Berry, 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 Berry 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 Berry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Berry — the short answer
Berry, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Fayette County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Berry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Berry's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Berry
Each reading below is measured for Berry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBerry runs about 240 days between hard freezes (read from Fayette County, the closest normal to Berry) — 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
MeasuredBerry 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 Berry is in
Berry sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Berry's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Fayette County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Berry
Every plant below cleared Berry's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Berry?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 13 — 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 Berry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Berry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BERRY WOOD PRODUCTSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- BERRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- B&B QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- HAROLD CLARK LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CONTINENTAL TELEPHONE OF THE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BERRY SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BERRY HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CULLEN PENDLY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- GRADY BIGHAMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BERRY TD-2 AR6 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- CHEVRON MINING INC., N. RIVER MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- BANKSTON'S COUNTRY GENERALUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Berry'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 Berry.
Total Sites
56
within ~10 miles of Berry
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Berry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Berry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Berry, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Berry. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Berry
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 Berry average
Your land is one point inside Berry
Everything above resolves to Berry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fayette 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 Berry Average
Berry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Berry
- ●One soil character for all of Berry
- ●Frost dates read at Berry's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Berry's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Berry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Berry, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Berry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Berry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Berry average
How we know this about Berry
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 Fayette 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 Berry
When does frost risk typically end in Berry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Berry 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 Berry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Berry typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Berry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Berry sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Berry?
The federal record around Berry shows 56 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (26), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Berry?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Berry's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Berry'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 Berry’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Berry's own scale — the 6,890 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Berry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Berry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Berry's boundary and the 6,890 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Berry sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Berry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fayette County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Berry's 6,890 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Berry's 6,890 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Berry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,890 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Berry-wide figureread your own land →
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