County Line, 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.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in County Line, 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 County Line 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 County Line — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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County Line — the short answer
County Line, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 500 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 500 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 Blount County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is County Line's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against County Line's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in County Line
Each reading below is measured for County Line itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCounty Line runs about 253 days between hard freezes (read from Blount County, the closest normal to County Line) — 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
MeasuredCounty Line 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 County Line is in
County Line sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at County Line's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in County Line
Every plant below cleared County Line's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in County Line?
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 21 — 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 County Line
Closest first, within ~10 miles of County Line. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BLOUNT RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1.5 mi
- YOUNG GROCERY & GASUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- K-MAXX#1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- GEORGE MCKENZIE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- PINE BLUFF WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 2.1 mi
- HAYES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HAGOOD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- HALLAWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CARLS C STORE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- HALLMARK TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- MELVINS SUPER STOP CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- AL0003Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from County Line'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 County Line.
Total Sites
114
within ~10 miles of County Line
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of County Line
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of County Line
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around County Line, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 91 sites within ~10 miles of County Line. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in County Line
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 County Line average
Your land is one point inside County Line
Everything above resolves to County Line as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 500 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Blount 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 County Line Average
County Line Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across County Line
- ●One soil character for all of County Line
- ●Frost dates read at County Line's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not County Line's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in County Line
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in County Line, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that County Line averages can't show:
We read public map data around County Line — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the County Line average
How we know this about County Line
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 Blount 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 County Line
When does frost risk typically end in County Line?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in County Line 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 County Line?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in County Line typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in County Line?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, County Line sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 7, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in County Line?
The federal record around County Line is a meaningful one — 114 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (91), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 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 County Line?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at County Line's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of County Line'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 County Line’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at County Line's own scale — the 500 acres it covers and 114 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- County Line's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 114 documented contamination sites on the federal record near County Line, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- County Line's boundary and the 500 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at County Line's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — County Line has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Blount County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so County Line's 500 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 County Line's 500 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of County Line you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 500 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 1.5 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 County Line-wide figureread your own land →
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