Walker County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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.
Walker 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
Walker County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Walker 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 Walker County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Walker County — the short answer
Walker County, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 506K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 506K 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 Walker County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Walker County's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Walker County
Across a year, Walker County accumulates about 4,890 growing degree days above 50°F, about 394 fewer than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 22 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 1,525 hours below 45°F, 277 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 Walker County
Across Walker County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sipsey, Townley, and Sunlight are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a channery silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
6%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Walker County
The USDA soil survey maps 87% of Walker County as well drained — but another 12% drains differently: 8% somewhat excessively drained, 5% moderately well drained.
Sipsey is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Townley (21%) and Sunlight (15%).
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 Walker County
Each reading below is measured for Walker 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 Walker County are well drained, in hydrologic group D — 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 Walker County runs about pH 5.0–5.3, 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
MeasuredWalker County runs about 245 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
MeasuredWalker 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 Walker County is in
Walker County sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Walker County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Walker County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 245-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 Walker 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 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What gets applied to farmland in Walker County
USGS estimates 9,462 lb of Glyphosate on Walker County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (4,018 lb) and Dicamba (2,568 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 Walker County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Walker County — 363 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 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 Walker 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 Walker County
Closest first, across Walker County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- QUALITY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- WHITEWAY ROBO SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- KEY CURB MKTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- O C JONES TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JASPER DISTRICT FOREST LANDS OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- STAR MART #10 CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- OMS #7Underground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HHD 135TH SUP & SVC BNUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- MCCOLLUM ROAD SCRAP YARDBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- EDGIL SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- LOYAL STANDARD LLCBrownfields · 2.2 mi
- WAYNES SUPER STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Walker 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 Walker County.
Total Sites
363
across Walker County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Walker County
Severity Distribution
across Walker County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Walker County, two things run higher than the national average across Walker County — CAFO (13 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Walker 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 Walker County average
Your land is one point inside Walker County
Everything above resolves to Walker County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 506K 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 Walker County Average
Walker County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Walker County
- ●One soil character for all of Walker County
- ●Frost dates read at Walker County's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Walker County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Walker County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Walker County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Walker County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Walker County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Walker County average
How we know this about Walker 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 Walker County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Walker County
When does frost risk typically end in Walker County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Walker County 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.
How long is the growing season in Walker County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Walker County sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 30, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Walker County?
The federal record around Walker County is a meaningful one — 363 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (270), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Walker County's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Walker 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 Walker County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Walker County's own scale — its own ~245-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 363 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Walker County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Walker County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Walker CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 363 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Walker County's boundary and the 506,278 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Walker County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Walker 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 Walker County — the ~245 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 Walker County's 506,278 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 363 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 Walker Countyread your own land →