Bon Air, 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.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bon Air, 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 Bon Air 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 Bon Air — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bon Air — the short answer
Bon Air, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 241 days between hard freezes, across 849 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- Talladega County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- Talladega County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~241
- Talladega County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 849 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 Talladega County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Bon Air's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bon Air's 241-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bon Air
Each reading below is measured for Bon Air itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBon Air runs about 241 days between hard freezes (read from Talladega County, the closest normal to Bon Air) — 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
MeasuredBon Air 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 Bon Air is in
Bon Air sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bon Air's own centroid rather than borrowed from Talladega County.
What Grows in Bon Air
Every plant below cleared Bon Air's own zone 8a and its 241-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bon Air?
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 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Bon Air
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bon Air. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALLEN OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- EXPRESS OIL CHANGE & TIRE ENGINNEERS--CHILDERSBURGBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- CENTRAL ALA COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- CHILDERSBURG FOOD SHOP BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- ALLEN FOODMART #27 EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- CHILDERSBURG MIDDLE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- EZ EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- AUTO PRIDE CHILDERSBURGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CHILDERSBURG TRUCK SERVICE INCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- SUNBELT RENTALS PC 1992Brownfields · 1.5 mi
- LEACH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CHILDERSBURG HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bon Air'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 Bon Air.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bon Air
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bon Air
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bon Air, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bon Air — Superfund (9 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (32 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 Bon Air
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 Bon Air average
Your land is one point inside Bon Air
Everything above resolves to Bon Air as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 849 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Talladega 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 Bon Air Average
Bon Air Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bon Air
- ●One soil character for all of Bon Air
- ●Frost dates read at Bon Air's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bon Air's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bon Air
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bon Air, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bon Air averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bon Air — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bon Air average
How we know this about Bon Air
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 Talladega 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 Bon Air
When does frost risk typically end in Bon Air?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bon Air 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 Bon Air?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bon Air typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 241 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bon Air?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bon Air sees about 241 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 31, about 206 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bon Air?
The federal record around Bon Air is a meaningful one — 284 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Bon Air?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bon Air's scale — its 8a band and its 241-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bon Air'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 Bon Air’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bon Air's own scale — the 849 acres it covers and 284 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bon Air's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 284 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bon Air, the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bon Air's boundary and the 849 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~241-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bon Air's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bon Air has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Talladega County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bon Air's 849 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Talladega County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Talladega 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 Talladega County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bon Air's 849 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bon Air you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 849 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.0 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 Bon Air-wide figureread your own land →
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