Clayhatchee, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Clayhatchee, 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 Clayhatchee 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 Clayhatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clayhatchee — the short answer
Clayhatchee, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Dale County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Clayhatchee's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clayhatchee's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Clayhatchee
Each reading below is measured for Clayhatchee itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsClayhatchee runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Dale County, the closest normal to Clayhatchee) — 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
MeasuredClayhatchee 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 Clayhatchee is in
Clayhatchee sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Clayhatchee's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dale County.
What Grows in Clayhatchee
Every plant below cleared Clayhatchee's own zone 8b and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Clayhatchee?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Clayhatchee
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Clayhatchee. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF CLAYHATCHEEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- AERO FUEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- FLOWERS BAKING CO THOMASVILLE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- ANNIES CONVENIENCE STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SCONYERS FARMCAFO · 0.8 mi
- HATCHERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- DALEVILLE WATER & SEWER BOARDPFAS · 1.7 mi
- 5R FARMSCAFO · 1.9 mi
- BRIGHT2 FARMCAFO · 3.1 mi
- GARY'S PAINT & BODYBrownfields · 3.5 mi
- TRI-GLASS VMC FIBERGLASS PRODUCTS INCToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- TRIPLE DUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clayhatchee'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 Clayhatchee.
Total Sites
199
within ~10 miles of Clayhatchee
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Clayhatchee
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Clayhatchee
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clayhatchee, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Clayhatchee — CAFO (16 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Clayhatchee
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 Clayhatchee average
Your land is one point inside Clayhatchee
Everything above resolves to Clayhatchee as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dale 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 Clayhatchee Average
Clayhatchee Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clayhatchee
- ●One soil character for all of Clayhatchee
- ●Frost dates read at Clayhatchee's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clayhatchee's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Clayhatchee
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clayhatchee, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clayhatchee averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clayhatchee — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clayhatchee average
How we know this about Clayhatchee
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 Dale 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 Clayhatchee
When does frost risk typically end in Clayhatchee?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clayhatchee typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Clayhatchee?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Clayhatchee 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 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Clayhatchee?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clayhatchee sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 19, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clayhatchee?
The federal record around Clayhatchee is a meaningful one — 199 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (125), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clayhatchee?
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 Clayhatchee's scale — its 8b band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clayhatchee'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 Clayhatchee’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Clayhatchee's own scale — the 1,740 acres it covers and 199 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clayhatchee's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 199 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Clayhatchee, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Clayhatchee's boundary and the 1,740 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Clayhatchee's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Clayhatchee has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dale County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Clayhatchee's 1,740 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dale 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 Dale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Clayhatchee's 1,740 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Clayhatchee you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,740 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Clayhatchee-wide figureread your own land →