Colony, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Colony, 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 Colony 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 Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Colony — the short answer
Colony, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Colony's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Colony's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Colony
Each reading below is measured for Colony itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredColony runs about 237 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
MeasuredColony 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 Colony is in
Colony sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Colony's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cullman County.
What Grows in Colony
Every plant below cleared Colony's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Colony?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Colony
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Colony. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARKERS 291 SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- CIRCLE K 2706851 JET PEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ACTION RESOURCESBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- CLEAN EARTH SPECIALTY WASTE SOLUTIONS, INCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- QUALAWASH HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- Well (Z-2)WILLIAM CASEY Cullman Cnty ALNitrate · 2.9 mi
- CITGO HAYDENUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- JURL RICE FARMSCAFO · 3.0 mi
- BATY POULTRY FARMCAFO · 3.2 mi
- DRUMMOND ARKADELPHIA MINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SWANN GROCERY #2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
- SWANN GROCERY #1Underground Storage Tanks · 4.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Colony'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 Colony.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Colony
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Colony
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Colony
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Colony, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Colony — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (60 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Colony
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 Colony average
Your land is one point inside Colony
Everything above resolves to Colony as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Colony Average
Colony Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Colony
- ●One soil character for all of Colony
- ●Frost dates read at Colony's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Colony's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Colony
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Colony, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Colony averages can't show:
We read public map data around Colony — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Colony average
How we know this about Colony
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 Colony’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 Colony
When does frost risk typically end in Colony?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Colony typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Colony?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Colony typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Colony?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Colony sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Colony?
The federal record around Colony shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (60), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Colony?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Colony's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Colony'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 Colony’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Colony's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,384 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Colony's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Colony's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Colony, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Colony's boundary and the 1,384 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Colony's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Colony's 1,384 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cullman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cullman 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 Cullman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Colony's 1,384 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Colony you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,384 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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 Colony-wide figureread your own land →
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