Blue Springs, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, 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 Blue Springs, 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 Blue Springs 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 Blue Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Blue Springs — the short answer
Blue Springs, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Barbour County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Barbour County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Barbour 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 Barbour County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Blue Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Blue Springs's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Blue Springs
Each reading below is measured for Blue Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBlue Springs runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Barbour County, the closest normal to Blue Springs) — 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
MeasuredBlue Springs 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 Blue Springs is in
Blue Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Blue Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Barbour County.
What Grows in Blue Springs
Every plant below cleared Blue Springs's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Blue Springs?
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 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 Blue Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Blue Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLUE SPRINGS PARK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- WILKINSON STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Well FF 7 313950085320601 Barbour County AlNitrate · 0.7 mi
- KNIGHT FARMSCAFO · 0.7 mi
- RED ROCK FARMSCAFO · 0.9 mi
- THE STOREHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HOLD THEM HIGH POULTRYCAFO · 1.6 mi
- FISHER FARMSCAFO · 1.7 mi
- MCCOY FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- CHANEY BRANCH FARMCAFO · 2.0 mi
- LONG FARMSCAFO · 2.5 mi
- CIRCLE N FARMSCAFO · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Blue Springs'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 Blue Springs.
Total Sites
128
within ~10 miles of Blue Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Blue Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Blue Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Blue Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Blue Springs — CAFO (80 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Blue Springs
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 Blue Springs average
Your land is one point inside Blue Springs
Everything above resolves to Blue Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Barbour 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 Blue Springs Average
Blue Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Blue Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Blue Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Blue Springs's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Blue Springs's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Blue Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Blue Springs, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Blue Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Blue Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Blue Springs average
How we know this about Blue Springs
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 Barbour 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 Blue Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Blue Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Springs 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 Blue Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Blue Springs 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 Blue Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Blue Springs 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 Blue Springs?
The federal record around Blue Springs shows 128 documented sites, mostly CAFO entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Blue Springs?
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 Blue Springs's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Blue Springs'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 Blue Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Blue Springs's own scale — the 1,853 acres it covers and 128 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Blue Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 128 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Blue Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Blue Springs's boundary and the 1,853 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Blue Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Blue Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Barbour County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Blue Springs's 1,853 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Barbour County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Barbour 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 Barbour County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Blue Springs's 1,853 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Blue Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,853 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Blue Springs-wide figureread your own land →