Fayette, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Fayette, 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 Fayette 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 Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Fayette — the short answer
Fayette, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- Fayette County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 5K 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 Fayette County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Fayette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Fayette's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Fayette
Each reading below is measured for Fayette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsFayette runs about 240 days between hard freezes (read from Fayette County, the closest normal to Fayette) — 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
MeasuredFayette 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 Fayette is in
Fayette sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Fayette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Fayette
Every plant below cleared Fayette's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Fayette?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 13 — 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 Fayette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Fayette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FAYETTE WOOD YARDBrownfields · 650 ft
- DELTA APPAREL INCToxics Release Inventory · 750 ft
- DELTA APPAREL INCBrownfields · 750 ft
- FANTASY ISLAND SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HUBBERTVILLE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HOWELL PETROLEUMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BRANYON SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- DODSON OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- MACKS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- FAYETTE PRINTING, INC.Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- FOWLER OIL COMPANYBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- FAYETTE COUNTY BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Fayette'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 Fayette.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Fayette
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Fayette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Fayette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Fayette, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Fayette — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 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.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Fayette
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 Fayette average
Your land is one point inside Fayette
Everything above resolves to Fayette as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Fayette 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 Fayette Average
Fayette Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Fayette
- ●One soil character for all of Fayette
- ●Frost dates read at Fayette's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Fayette's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Fayette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Fayette, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Fayette averages can't show:
We read public map data around Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Fayette average
How we know this about Fayette
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 Fayette 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 Fayette
When does frost risk typically end in Fayette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Fayette 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.
When is the first frost in Fayette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Fayette typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Fayette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Fayette sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Fayette?
The federal record around Fayette shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 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 Fayette?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Fayette's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Fayette'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 Fayette’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Fayette's own scale — the 5,472 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Fayette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Fayette, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Fayette's boundary and the 5,472 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Fayette's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Fayette has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Fayette County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Fayette's 5,472 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Fayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Fayette 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 Fayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Fayette's 5,472 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Fayette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,472 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 Fayette-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaFayette sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides