Deer Park, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Deer Park, 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 Deer Park 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 Deer Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Deer Park — the short answer
Deer Park, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 274 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~274
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Deer Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Deer Park's 274-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Deer Park
Each reading below is measured for Deer Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDeer Park runs about 274 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Deer Park) — 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
MeasuredDeer Park 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 Deer Park is in
Deer Park sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Deer Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Deer Park
Every plant below cleared Deer Park's own zone 8b and its 274-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Deer Park?
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 Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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's on the federal record near Deer Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Deer Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TURNERS VARIETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- DEER PARK-VINEGAR BEND WATER & FPAPFAS · 3.8 mi
- PRA PROPERTIES - Z-TEC #516Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- CLARENCE BROWN RD DRUMSuperfund · 6.8 mi
- OIL WELL HYDRAULICS INCBrownfields · 7.6 mi
- CHARITY CHAPEL STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- CHAMPION INTERNATIONAL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.6 mi
- BAMFORD SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 8.7 mi
- RIVERS SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- CITRONELLE CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.0 mi
- Well D 2 CITY OF CITRONELLE Mobile County AlNitrate · 9.1 mi
- CITRONELLE R R TOWERUnderground Storage Tanks · 9.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Deer Park'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 Deer Park.
Total Sites
32
within ~10 miles of Deer Park
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Deer Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Deer Park
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 Deer Park
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 Deer Park average
Your land is one point inside Deer Park
Everything above resolves to Deer Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid. 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 town 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 Deer Park Average
Deer Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Deer Park
- ●One soil character for all of Deer Park
- ●Frost dates read at Deer Park's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Deer Park's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Deer Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Deer Park, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Deer Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Deer Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Deer Park average
How we know this about Deer Park
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Washington County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-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 Deer Park
When does frost risk typically end in Deer Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Park typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Deer Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Deer Park typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 274 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Deer Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Deer Park sees about 274 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 13, about 239 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Deer Park?
The federal record around Deer Park is a meaningful one — 32 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (17), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Deer Park?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Deer Park's scale — its 8b band and its 274-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Deer Park'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 Deer Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Deer Park's own scale — the 2,000 acres it covers and 32 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Deer Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 32 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Deer Park, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Deer Park's boundary and the 2,000 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~274-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Deer Park's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Deer Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Deer Park's 2,000 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Deer Park's 2,000 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Deer Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,000 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Deer Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaDeer Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides