Fairhope, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Fairhope, 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 Fairhope 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 Fairhope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fairhope — the short answer
Fairhope, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Fairhope's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fairhope's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fairhope
Each reading below is measured for Fairhope itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFairhope runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Fairhope) — 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
MeasuredFairhope sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Fairhope is in
Fairhope sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fairhope's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baldwin County.
What Grows in Fairhope
Every plant below cleared Fairhope's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fairhope?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — 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 Fairhope
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fairhope. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOFFREN'S AUTO DIAGNOSTICSBrownfields · 650 ft
- FAIRHOPE SATELLITE COURTHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WINN DIXIE STORE #599Brownfields · 1400 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4945Brownfields · 2300 ft
- WALGREENS #6084Brownfields · 2400 ft
- EMPEROR CLOCK LLCBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- UNCLE SAM'S SUPER STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- DELI DEPOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- THOMAS HOSPITALBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FAIRHOPE MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- THOMAS HOSPITALUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- MARINE EXHAUST SYSTEMS OF ALBrownfields · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fairhope'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 Fairhope.
Total Sites
239
within ~10 miles of Fairhope
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fairhope
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fairhope
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Fairhope
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 Fairhope average
Your land is one point inside Fairhope
Everything above resolves to Fairhope as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin 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 Fairhope Average
Fairhope Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Fairhope
- ●One soil character for all of Fairhope
- ●Frost dates read at Fairhope's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fairhope's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fairhope
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fairhope, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fairhope averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fairhope — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fairhope average
How we know this about Fairhope
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 Baldwin 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 Fairhope
When does frost risk typically end in Fairhope?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fairhope typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Fairhope?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fairhope typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fairhope?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fairhope sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fairhope?
The federal record around Fairhope is a meaningful one — 239 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (120), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Fairhope?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fairhope's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fairhope'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 Fairhope’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fairhope's own scale — the 9,489 acres it covers and 239 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fairhope's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 239 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fairhope, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fairhope's boundary and the 9,489 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fairhope's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fairhope has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fairhope's 9,489 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fairhope's 9,489 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fairhope you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,489 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Fairhope-wide figureread your own land →
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