Carrollton, 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Carrollton, 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 Carrollton 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 Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Carrollton — the short answer
Carrollton, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Pickens County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Carrollton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Carrollton's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Carrollton
Each reading below is measured for Carrollton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCarrollton runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pickens County, the closest normal to Carrollton) — 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
MeasuredCarrollton 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 Carrollton is in
Carrollton sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Carrollton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pickens County.
What Grows in Carrollton
Every plant below cleared Carrollton's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Carrollton?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 21 — 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 Carrollton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Carrollton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COURT HOUSE SQUAREUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CARROLLTON TD-2 AR-6 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- FITCHS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- CARROLLTON BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- CARROLLTON ELEMENTARY SCHOOLBrownfields · 550 ft
- BEVILL STATE COMM COLLEGE CARROLLTONBrownfields · 600 ft
- B MART 2Underground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- CARROLLTON FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- JR FOOD STORE #246Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- MORUNI GROUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- PICKENS COUNTY JAILUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- COUNTRY MISS OF CORROLLTONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Carrollton'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 Carrollton.
Total Sites
101
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Carrollton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Carrollton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Carrollton — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (66 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Carrollton
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 Carrollton average
Your land is one point inside Carrollton
Everything above resolves to Carrollton as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pickens 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 Carrollton Average
Carrollton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Carrollton
- ●One soil character for all of Carrollton
- ●Frost dates read at Carrollton's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Carrollton's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Carrollton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Carrollton, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Carrollton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Carrollton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Carrollton average
How we know this about Carrollton
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 Pickens 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 Carrollton
When does frost risk typically end in Carrollton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Carrollton 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 Carrollton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Carrollton typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Carrollton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Carrollton sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 7, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Carrollton?
The federal record around Carrollton shows 101 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Carrollton?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Carrollton's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Carrollton'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 Carrollton’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Carrollton's own scale — the 1,317 acres it covers and 101 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Carrollton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 101 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Carrollton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Carrollton's boundary and the 1,317 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Carrollton's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Carrollton has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pickens County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Carrollton's 1,317 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pickens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pickens 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 Pickens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Carrollton's 1,317 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Carrollton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,317 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 Carrollton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaCarrollton sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides