Lamar County, in 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.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lamar County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lamar 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 Lamar County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lamar County — the short answer
Lamar County, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 387K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 387K 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 Lamar County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lamar County's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lamar County
Across a year, Lamar County accumulates about 4,929 growing degree days above 50°F, about 355 fewer than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 23 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 1,551 hours below 45°F, 303 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 Lamar County
Across Lamar County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Luverne, and Mantachie are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
17%
Hydric soils
7%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lamar County
The USDA soil survey maps 68% of Lamar County as well drained — but another 32% drains differently: 20% somewhat poorly drained, 11% moderately well drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 29% of mapped acres, then Luverne (20%) and Mantachie (14%).
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 Lamar County
Each reading below is measured for Lamar 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 Lamar County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — 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 Lamar 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
MeasuredLamar County runs about 235 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
MeasuredLamar 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 Lamar County is in
Lamar 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 Lamar County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lamar County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 235-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 Lamar County?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What gets applied to farmland in Lamar County
USGS estimates 10,687 lb of Glyphosate on Lamar County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (3,032 lb) and Dicamba (2,746 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 Lamar County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lamar County — 143 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Lamar 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 Lamar County
Closest first, across Lamar County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONTINENTAL TELEPHONE OF THE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- B AND B TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- RONS MFAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- J&M TRADINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- VERNON WELL 3 (NAWQA FLH-9-1)Nitrate · 2.2 mi
- DISTRICT 1 COUNTY BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Well K-6 TOWN OF VERNON Lamar County AlNitrate · 2.4 mi
- VICK OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- KEYSTONE RUSTPROOFING INCBrownfields · 2.5 mi
- VERNON AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- VERNON EXPRESS MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- MAC'S MINIT MART VERNONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lamar 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 Lamar County.
Total Sites
143
across Lamar County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Severity Distribution
across Lamar County
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Lamar 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 Lamar County average
Your land is one point inside Lamar County
Everything above resolves to Lamar County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 387K 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 Lamar County Average
Lamar County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lamar County
- ●One soil character for all of Lamar County
- ●Frost dates read at Lamar County's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lamar County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lamar County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lamar County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lamar County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lamar County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lamar County average
How we know this about Lamar 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 Lamar County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lamar County
When does frost risk typically end in Lamar County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lamar County typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
How long is the growing season in Lamar County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lamar County sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lamar County?
The federal record around Lamar County is a meaningful one — 143 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (75), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Lamar County's scale — its 8a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lamar 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 Lamar County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Lamar County's own scale — its own ~235-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 143 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lamar County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lamar County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~235-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lamar CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 143 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lamar County's boundary and the 387,061 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lamar County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lamar 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 Lamar County — the ~235 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 Lamar County's 387,061 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 143 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 Lamar Countyread your own land →