Cleveland, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Cleveland, 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 Cleveland 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 Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cleveland — the short answer
Cleveland, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 254 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~254
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Cleveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cleveland's 254-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cleveland
Each reading below is measured for Cleveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCleveland runs about 254 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredCleveland 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 Cleveland is in
Cleveland sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cleveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in Cleveland
Every plant below cleared Cleveland's own zone 8a and its 254-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cleveland?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cleveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cleveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLOUNT COUNTY CLEVELAND BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- AL0076Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- M&M PARTNERSHIP (KRAZY T'S BP)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- EVANS M&K MERCANTILEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CLEVELAND SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SULLIVANS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- S&S CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- MASONS CASH AND CARRYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- LAKEVIEW TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- WALLS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- GILLILAND GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- RACEWAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cleveland'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 Cleveland.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cleveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cleveland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cleveland — CAFO (18 sites) and PFAS (3 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 Cleveland
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 Cleveland average
Your land is one point inside Cleveland
Everything above resolves to Cleveland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K acres. 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 Cleveland Average
Cleveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Cleveland
- ●One soil character for all of Cleveland
- ●Frost dates read at Cleveland's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cleveland's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cleveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cleveland, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cleveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cleveland average
How we know this about Cleveland
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 Cleveland’s own record; 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 Cleveland
When does frost risk typically end in Cleveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cleveland typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Cleveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cleveland typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 254 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cleveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cleveland sees about 254 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 8, about 219 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cleveland?
The federal record around Cleveland is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (80), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Cleveland?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cleveland's scale — its 8a band and its 254-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cleveland'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 Cleveland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cleveland's own scale — its own ~254-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,024 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cleveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cleveland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 22 and the ~254-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cleveland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cleveland's boundary and the 5,024 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~254-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cleveland's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cleveland's 5,024 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blount County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blount 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 Blount County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cleveland's 5,024 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cleveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,024 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Cleveland-wide figureread your own land →
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