Bucks, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bucks, 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 Bucks 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 Bucks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bucks — the short answer
Bucks, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 248 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 248 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bucks's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bucks's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bucks
Each reading below is measured for Bucks itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBucks runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Bucks) — 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
MeasuredBucks 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 Bucks is in
Bucks sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bucks's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mobile County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Bucks
Every plant below cleared Bucks's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bucks?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Bucks
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bucks. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BUCKS PLANTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- WHEELHOUSE BAIT & TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUCKS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- ERSHIGS BARRY STACK LINER PROJECTToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- BARRY STEAM PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Well J-7 ALABAMA POWER CO. BARRY STEAM PLANTNitrate · 0.9 mi
- ALABAMA POWER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- ALABAMA POWER COMPANYBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- U. S. AMINES - BUCKS PLANTBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- U. S. AMINES - BUCKS PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- IB NITROGEN INCToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
- HOSEA O WEAVER & SONS INCBrownfields · 2.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bucks'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 Bucks.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bucks
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bucks
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bucks, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bucks — Toxics Release Inventory (21 sites) and Superfund (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Bucks
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 Bucks average
Your land is one point inside Bucks
Everything above resolves to Bucks as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 248 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile 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 Bucks Average
Bucks Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bucks
- ●One soil character for all of Bucks
- ●Frost dates read at Bucks's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bucks's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bucks
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bucks, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bucks averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bucks — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bucks average
How we know this about Bucks
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 Mobile 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 Bucks
When does frost risk typically end in Bucks?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bucks typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Bucks?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bucks typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bucks?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bucks sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bucks?
The federal record around Bucks is a meaningful one — 153 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (51), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Bucks?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bucks's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bucks'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 Bucks’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bucks's own scale — the 248 acres it covers and 153 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bucks's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 153 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bucks, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bucks's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Bucks sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bucks has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bucks's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile 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 Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bucks's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bucks you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Bucks-wide figureread your own land →
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