Elba, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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.
Even in Elba, 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 Elba 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 Elba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Elba — the short answer
Elba, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 286 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Coffee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Coffee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~286
- Coffee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Coffee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Elba's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elba's 286-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elba
Each reading below is measured for Elba itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElba runs about 286 days between hard freezes (read from Coffee County, the closest normal to Elba) — 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
MeasuredElba 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 Elba is in
Elba sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elba's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coffee County.
What Grows in Elba
Every plant below cleared Elba's own zone 8b and its 286-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elba?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Elba
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elba. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DORSEY TRAILERS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- DORSEY TRAILERS MAIN OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- ELBA AUTO SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- WILLIAMS SIGNS, INC.Brownfields · 1800 ft
- NELLINE HUDSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- REBEL ""8"" GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- STATE OF ALABAMA HIGHWAY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- ELBA SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- GRANTHAM BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- NASCO EQUIPMENT COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- JR FOOD STORE #107Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ELBA CHEVRON TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elba'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 Elba.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Elba
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elba
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elba
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elba, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 28 sites within ~10 miles of Elba. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Elba
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 Elba average
Your land is one point inside Elba
Everything above resolves to Elba as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Coffee County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Elba Average
Elba Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Elba
- ●One soil character for all of Elba
- ●Frost dates read at Elba's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elba's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elba
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elba, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elba averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elba — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elba average
How we know this about Elba
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 Coffee 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 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 Elba
When does frost risk typically end in Elba?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elba typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 11.
When is the first frost in Elba?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elba typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 286 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elba?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elba sees about 286 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 17, about 251 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elba?
The federal record around Elba shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elba?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elba's scale — its 8b band and its 286-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elba'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 Elba’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elba's own scale — the 9,816 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elba's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elba, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elba's boundary and the 9,816 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~286-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elba's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elba has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Coffee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elba's 9,816 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coffee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coffee 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 Coffee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elba's 9,816 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elba you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,816 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Elba-wide figureread your own land →
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