Centreville, 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Centreville, 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 Centreville 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 Centreville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Centreville — the short answer
Centreville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Bibb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- Bibb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- Bibb County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Bibb County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Centreville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Centreville's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Centreville
Each reading below is measured for Centreville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCentreville runs about 250 days between hard freezes (read from Bibb County, the closest normal to Centreville) — 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
MeasuredCentreville 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 Centreville is in
Centreville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Centreville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bibb County.
What Grows in Centreville
Every plant below cleared Centreville's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Centreville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 17 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Centreville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Centreville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CENTREVILLE VALERO AARAV ENTERPRISESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CENTREVILLE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- BIBB PUBLICATIONS INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- A NEW GYMNASIUM FOR BIBB COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- CENTREVILLE OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SCARBROUGH SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- TWIX & TWEEN SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CENTREVILLE MAIN - 11515Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FREEMAN PATRICK WOOD PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FREEMAN PATRICK WOOD PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- TREADWAYS BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- FREEMAN TRUCK PARTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Centreville'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 Centreville.
Total Sites
86
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Centreville
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Centreville
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 Centreville average
Your land is one point inside Centreville
Everything above resolves to Centreville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bibb County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Centreville Average
Centreville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Centreville
- ●One soil character for all of Centreville
- ●Frost dates read at Centreville's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Centreville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Centreville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Centreville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Centreville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Centreville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Centreville average
How we know this about Centreville
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bibb 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Centreville
When does frost risk typically end in Centreville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Centreville typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Centreville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Centreville typically arrives around Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 3, so the watching starts about Oct 18 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Centreville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Centreville sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 17, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 3, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Centreville?
The federal record around Centreville shows 86 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (50), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Centreville?
From about Oct 18 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 17 (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 17. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Centreville's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Centreville'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 Centreville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Centreville's own scale — the 6,049 acres it covers and 86 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Centreville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 86 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Centreville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Centreville's boundary and the 6,049 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Centreville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Centreville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bibb County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Centreville's 6,049 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bibb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bibb 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 Bibb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Centreville's 6,049 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Centreville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,049 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Centreville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Growing region
Nearby growing guides