Bon Secour, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bon Secour, 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 Secour 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 Secour — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bon Secour — the short answer
Bon Secour, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Bon Secour's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bon Secour's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bon Secour
Each reading below is measured for Bon Secour itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBon Secour runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Bon Secour) — 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
MeasuredBon Secour sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Secour is in
Bon Secour sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bon Secour's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baldwin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bon Secour
Every plant below cleared Bon Secour's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bon Secour?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Bon Secour
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Bon Secour, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bon Secour
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bon Secour. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BON SECOUR TIRE & BATTERY CO.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- GULF TELEPHONE COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- BON SECOUR SAVEWAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- LAFARGE GULF SHORES CONCRETE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- AMERICAN CONCRETE SUPPLY - FOLEYToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- GRAND RENTAL STATION/NFL BUILDING CENTERBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- TRAX TIRES INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- TOWN & COUNTRY MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- WAVE DOCTOR INCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- SOUTH BALDWIN AUTO SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- HARRISONS KWIK TRIPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bon Secour'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 Secour.
Total Sites
259
within ~10 miles of Bon Secour
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bon Secour
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bon Secour
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bon Secour, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bon Secour — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (4 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.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bon Secour
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 Secour average
Your land is one point inside Bon Secour
Everything above resolves to Bon Secour as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin 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 Secour Average
Bon Secour Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Bon Secour
- ●One soil character for all of Bon Secour
- ●Frost dates read at Bon Secour's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bon Secour's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bon Secour
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bon Secour, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bon Secour averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bon Secour — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bon Secour average
How we know this about Bon Secour
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 Baldwin 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 Secour
When does frost risk typically end in Bon Secour?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bon Secour typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Bon Secour?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bon Secour typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bon Secour?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bon Secour sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bon Secour?
The federal record around Bon Secour is a meaningful one — 259 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Secour?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bon Secour's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bon Secour'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 Secour’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bon Secour's own scale — the 2,765 acres it covers and 259 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bon Secour's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 259 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bon Secour, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bon Secour's boundary and the 2,765 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bon Secour sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bon Secourlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bon Secour has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bon Secour's 2,765 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bon Secour's 2,765 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bon Secour you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,765 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 Bon Secour-wide figureread your own land →
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