Winston County, in Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Winston 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
Winston County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Winston 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 Winston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Winston County — the short answer
Winston County, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 392K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 392K 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 7b is Winston County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Winston County's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Winston County
Across a year, Winston County accumulates about 4,496 growing degree days above 50°F, about 788 fewer than the middle Alabama county — ahead of 6 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 1,699 hours below 45°F, 451 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 Winston County
Across Winston County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Sipsey, Bankhead, and Wynnville are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.3, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group A soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
10%
Hydric soils
0%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Winston County
The USDA soil survey maps 81% of Winston County as well drained — but another 16% drains differently: 12% moderately well drained, 5% somewhat excessively drained.
Sipsey is the most extensive named soil at 32% of mapped acres, then Bankhead (21%) and Wynnville (8%).
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 Winston County
Each reading below is measured for Winston 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 Winston 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 Winston 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
MeasuredWinston County runs about 239 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
MeasuredWinston County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Winston County is in
Winston 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 Winston County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Winston County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 239-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 Winston County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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. 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.
Documented around Winston County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Winston County
USGS estimates 6,054 lb of 2,4-d on Winston County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Glyphosate (863 lb) and Dicamba (724 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 Winston County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Winston County — 195 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 Winston 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 Winston County
Closest first, across Winston County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- STOCKTON BAIT & FLOWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BANKHEAD RANGER FAIRVIEW WORK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- WINSTON COUNTY SHERIFF DEPTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- TOM FRAZIER 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- C L ROBINS LUMBER CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- WAYNES CUSTOM EXHAUSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DOUBLE SPRINGS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- MAIN STREET TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SOUTHERN HOMES IToxics Release Inventory · 2.5 mi
- AMERICAN FIBERGLASS PRODUCTS INCBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- DOUBLE SPRINGS MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- L&R FISH AND BAIT (OVERTONS)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Winston 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 Winston County.
Total Sites
195
across Winston County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Winston County
Severity Distribution
across Winston County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Winston County, two things run higher than the national average across Winston County — PFAS (4 sites) and CAFO (3 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.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Winston 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 Winston County average
Your land is one point inside Winston County
Everything above resolves to Winston County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 392K 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 Winston County Average
Winston County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Winston County
- ●One soil character for all of Winston County
- ●Frost dates read at Winston County's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Winston County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Winston County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Winston County, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Winston County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Winston County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Winston County average
How we know this about Winston 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 Winston County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Winston County
When does frost risk typically end in Winston County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Winston County typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
How long is the growing season in Winston County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Winston County sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Winston County?
The federal record around Winston County is a meaningful one — 195 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (124), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 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 Winston County's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Winston 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 Winston County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Winston County's own scale — its own ~239-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 195 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Winston County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Winston County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Winston CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 195 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.6 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Winston County's boundary and the 392,320 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Winston County sitting wholly inside the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Winston County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Winston 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 Winston County — the ~239 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 Winston County's 392,320 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 195 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 Winston Countyread your own land →