Birmingham, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Birmingham, 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 Birmingham 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 Birmingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Birmingham — the short answer
Birmingham, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 94K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 94K 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 Jefferson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Birmingham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Birmingham's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Birmingham
Each reading below is measured for Birmingham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBirmingham runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson County, the closest normal to Birmingham) — 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
MeasuredBirmingham 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 Birmingham is in
Birmingham sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Birmingham's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Southwestern Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Birmingham
Every plant below cleared Birmingham's own zone 8a and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Birmingham?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Birmingham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Birmingham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SWEEPING CORP. OF AMERICAUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- HARDIE-TYNES CO., INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- HARDIE-TYNES MANUFACTURING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- LUTTRELL ARCHITECTURAL WOODWORKS INC.Brownfields · 900 ft
- BIRMINGHAM-JEFFERSON COUNTY TRANSIT AUTHORITYBrownfields · 950 ft
- PRINCETON PACKAGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- INTERNATIONAL FLEET LEASE CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- LIBERTY TRUCK SALES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- WHITE GMC TRUCKSBrownfields · 1200 ft
- CONVERSION TECHNOLOGIES LLCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- SOUTHERN CONSTRUCTION PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 1300 ft
- SIRCO SYSTEMS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Birmingham'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 Birmingham.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Birmingham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Birmingham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Birmingham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Birmingham — Superfund (40 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (148 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Birmingham
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 Birmingham average
Your land is one point inside Birmingham
Everything above resolves to Birmingham as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 94K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson 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 Birmingham Average
Birmingham Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Birmingham
- ●One soil character for all of Birmingham
- ●Frost dates read at Birmingham's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Birmingham's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Birmingham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Birmingham, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Birmingham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Birmingham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Birmingham average
How we know this about Birmingham
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 Jefferson 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 Birmingham
When does frost risk typically end in Birmingham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Birmingham typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Birmingham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Birmingham typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Birmingham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Birmingham sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 13, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Birmingham?
The federal record around Birmingham is a meaningful one — 2,258 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,335), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Birmingham?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Birmingham's scale — its 8a band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Birmingham'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 Birmingham’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Birmingham's own scale — the 94,125 acres it covers and 2,258 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Birmingham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,258 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Birmingham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Birmingham's boundary and the 94,125 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Birmingham sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Birmingham has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Birmingham's 94,125 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Birmingham's 94,125 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Birmingham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 94,125 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Birmingham-wide figureread your own land →
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