Castleberry, 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 Castleberry, 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 Castleberry 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 Castleberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Castleberry — the short answer
Castleberry, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 279 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- Conecuh County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- Conecuh County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~279
- Conecuh 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 Conecuh County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Castleberry's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Castleberry's 279-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Castleberry
Each reading below is measured for Castleberry itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCastleberry runs about 279 days between hard freezes (read from Conecuh County, the closest normal to Castleberry) — 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
MeasuredCastleberry 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 Castleberry is in
Castleberry sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Castleberry's own centroid rather than borrowed from Conecuh County.
What Grows in Castleberry
Every plant below cleared Castleberry's own zone 8b and its 279-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Castleberry?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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 Castleberry
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Castleberry. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INCBrownfields · 1200 ft
- JOE'S BP STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- EZELL CASTLEBERRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CLAYTON REEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FRANK PATEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CASTLEBERRY WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- CASTLEBERRY WOOD PRODUCTSToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- CASTLEBERRY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- LOUIS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- VAALI FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WEYERHAEUSER NR COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 2.0 mi
- WEYERHAEUSER NR COMPANYBrownfields · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Castleberry'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 Castleberry.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Castleberry
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Castleberry
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Castleberry
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Castleberry, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Castleberry — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (35 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Castleberry
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 Castleberry average
Your land is one point inside Castleberry
Everything above resolves to Castleberry as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Conecuh 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 Castleberry Average
Castleberry Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Castleberry
- ●One soil character for all of Castleberry
- ●Frost dates read at Castleberry's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Castleberry's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Castleberry
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Castleberry, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Castleberry averages can't show:
We read public map data around Castleberry — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Castleberry average
How we know this about Castleberry
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 Conecuh 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 Castleberry
When does frost risk typically end in Castleberry?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Castleberry typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Castleberry?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Castleberry typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 279 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Castleberry?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Castleberry sees about 279 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 16, about 244 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Castleberry?
The federal record around Castleberry shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (35), the nearest Brownfields 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 Castleberry?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Castleberry's scale — its 8b band and its 279-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Castleberry'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 Castleberry’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Castleberry's own scale — the 1,095 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Castleberry's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Castleberry, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Castleberry's boundary and the 1,095 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~279-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Castleberry's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Castleberry has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Conecuh County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Castleberry's 1,095 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Conecuh County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Conecuh 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 Conecuh County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Castleberry's 1,095 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Castleberry you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,095 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Castleberry-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaCastleberry sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides