Bibb County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Bibb County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Bibb County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Bibb County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Bibb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bibb County — the short answer
Bibb County, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 398K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 398K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 Bibb County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bibb County's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Bibb County
Across a year, Bibb County accumulates about 5,327 growing degree days above 50°F, about 43 more than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 34 of Alabama’s 67 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,342 hours below 45°F, 94 more than the Alabama middle of 1,248. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Bibb County
Across Bibb County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Luverne, and Maubila are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group C soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Bibb County
The USDA soil survey maps 61% of Bibb County as well drained — but another 39% drains differently: 20% moderately well drained, 6% poorly drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 26% of mapped acres, then Luverne (16%) and Maubila (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Bibb County
Each reading below is measured for Bibb County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Bibb County are well drained, in hydrologic group C — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Bibb County runs about pH 4.6–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredBibb County runs about 250 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
MeasuredBibb County 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 Bibb County is in
Bibb County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (67%) and Ridge and Valley (33%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Bibb County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Bibb County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 250-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile.
Is it too late to plant in Bibb County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bibb County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Bibb County
USGS estimates 5,708 lb of Glyphosate on Bibb County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (3,368 lb) and Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (1,808 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Bibb County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Bibb County — 142 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Bibb County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Bibb County
Closest first, across Bibb County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- INTERNATIONAL PALLET, INCBrownfields · 2.0 mi
- Well P 1 330030087041201 Bibb County AlNitrate · 3.3 mi
- FREEMAN PATRICK WOOD PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.9 mi
- FREEMAN PATRICK WOOD PRODUCTS LLCBrownfields · 3.9 mi
- A NEW GYMNASIUM FOR BIBB COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- WILLAMINA LUMBERToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- CENTREVILLE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #425Brownfields · 4.4 mi
- JONES EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- QUICK SHOP #11Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- AMBROSE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- QUICK SHOP #19Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bibb County'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 Bibb County.
Total Sites
142
across Bibb County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Bibb County
Severity Distribution
across Bibb County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bibb County, two things run higher than the national average across Bibb County — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (88 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bibb County
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 Bibb County average
Your land is one point inside Bibb County
Everything above resolves to Bibb County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 398K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Bibb County Average
Bibb County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bibb County
- ●One soil character for all of Bibb County
- ●Frost dates read at Bibb County's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 17
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bibb County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Bibb County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bibb County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bibb County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bibb County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bibb County average
How we know this about Bibb County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Bibb County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Bibb County
When does frost risk typically end in Bibb County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bibb County 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.
How long is the growing season in Bibb County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bibb County 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 Bibb County?
The federal record around Bibb County shows 142 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (88), the nearest Brownfields record about 2.0 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.
Everything above is measured at Bibb County's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bibb County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Alabama's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Bibb County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Bibb County's own scale — its own ~250-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 142 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bibb County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bibb County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~250-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Bibb CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 142 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 2.0 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Bibb County's boundary and the 398,380 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 2 ecoregions Bibb County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Bibb County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Bibb County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Bibb County — the ~250 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bibb County's 398,380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 142 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Bibb Countyread your own land →