Clarke County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Clarke County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Clarke 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 Clarke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Clarke County — the short answer
Clarke County, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 283 days between hard freezes, across 793K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~283
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 793K 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 8b is Clarke County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Clarke County's 283-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Clarke County
Across a year, Clarke County accumulates about 5,631 growing degree days above 50°F, about 347 more than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 51 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 947 hours below 45°F, 301 fewer 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 Clarke County
Across Clarke County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Luverne, and Wadley are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loamy sand surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.1, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
8%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Clarke County
The USDA soil survey maps 54% of Clarke County as well drained — but another 44% drains differently: 19% moderately well drained, 10% somewhat poorly drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 14% of mapped acres, then Luverne (12%) and Wadley (9%).
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 Clarke County
Each reading below is measured for Clarke 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 Clarke County are well drained, in hydrologic group A — 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 Clarke County runs about pH 5.0–5.1, 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
MeasuredClarke County runs about 283 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredClarke County 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 Clarke County is in
Clarke County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Clarke County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Clarke County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 283-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 Clarke County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What gets applied to farmland in Clarke County
USGS estimates 2,991 lb of Glyphosate on Clarke County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Triclopyr (725 lb) and 2,4-d (515 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 Clarke County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Clarke County — 241 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Clarke County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Clarke County
Closest first, across Clarke County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GROVE HILL WATER WORKSPFAS · 0 ft
- HAL JOHNSON LOGGINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SOUTHERN AUTO SALESBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- JR FOOD STORE #97Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- O K SERVICE STATION (NO TANKS)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION DIST 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- ADAMS & WHITTINGTON LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- B & F FARM SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION HWYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- GROVE HILL GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- DUMAS MANUFACTURINGBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- DIAMOND GASOLINE STATIONS INC #12Underground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Clarke 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 Clarke County.
Total Sites
241
across Clarke County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Clarke County
Severity Distribution
across Clarke County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Clarke County, two things run higher than the national average across Clarke County — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (163 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Clarke 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 Clarke County average
Your land is one point inside Clarke County
Everything above resolves to Clarke County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 793K 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 Clarke County Average
Clarke County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Clarke County
- ●One soil character for all of Clarke County
- ●Frost dates read at Clarke County's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Clarke County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Clarke County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Clarke County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Clarke County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Clarke County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Clarke County average
How we know this about Clarke 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 Clarke County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Clarke County
When does frost risk typically end in Clarke County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Clarke County typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 13.
How long is the growing season in Clarke County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Clarke County sees about 283 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 16, about 248 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Clarke County?
The federal record around Clarke County is a meaningful one — 241 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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.
Everything above is measured at Clarke County's scale — its 8b band and its 283-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Clarke 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 Clarke County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Clarke County's own scale — its own ~283-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 241 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Clarke County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Clarke County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~283-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Clarke CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 241 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile outFederal environmental registers
- Clarke County's boundary and the 792,588 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~283-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Clarke County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Clarke 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 Clarke County — the ~283 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 Clarke County's 792,588 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 241 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 Clarke Countyread your own land →