Decatur, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Decatur, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Decatur lot. 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 Decatur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Decatur — the short answer
Decatur, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 35K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 35K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Decatur's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Decatur's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Decatur
Each reading below is measured for Decatur itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDecatur runs about 252 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
MeasuredDecatur 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 Decatur is in
Decatur sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Decatur's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Decatur
Every plant below cleared Decatur's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Decatur?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — 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's on the federal record near Decatur
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Decatur. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DECATUR WELCOME ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- STAR SPIRITS (BUSY BEE #2)Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CHEVRON USA INC-0044974Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SATTERFIELDS AUTO TECH SERVICE CTRBrownfields · 1800 ft
- FOUR SEASONS CLEANERSBrownfields · 1800 ft
- AUSTINVILLE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- TIDY CARS SEE 17580-103-015631Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LINDER'S AUTO & DETAILBrownfields · 1900 ft
- CLASSIC CAR SEE 14725-103-001165Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- PHILLIPS 66 CO #021660Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 14TH STREET CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- J-MART #514 SUNOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Decatur'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 Decatur.
Total Sites
620
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Decatur
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Decatur, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 73 sites within ~10 miles of Decatur. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Decatur
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 Decatur average
Your land is one point inside Decatur
Everything above resolves to Decatur as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 35K 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 city 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Decatur Average
Decatur Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Decatur
- ●One soil character for all of Decatur
- ●Frost dates read at Decatur's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Decatur's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Decatur
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Decatur, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Decatur averages can't show:
We read public map data around Decatur — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Decatur average
How we know this about Decatur
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Decatur’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Decatur
When does frost risk typically end in Decatur?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Decatur typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Decatur?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Decatur typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Decatur?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Decatur sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 4, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Decatur?
The federal record around Decatur is a meaningful one — 620 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (328), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Decatur?
From about Oct 19 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Decatur's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Decatur's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Decatur’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Decatur's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 34,941 acres it covers and 620 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Decatur's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Decatur's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 18 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 620 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Decatur, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Decatur's boundary and the 34,941 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Decatur's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Decatur's 34,941 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan County
- The growing challenges every Alabama grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Alabama
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Decatur's 34,941 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Decatur you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 34,941 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Decatur-wide figureread your own land →
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