Glen Allen, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Glen Allen, 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 Glen Allen 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 Glen Allen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Glen Allen — the short answer
Glen Allen, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 7b is Glen Allen's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Glen Allen's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Glen Allen
Each reading below is measured for Glen Allen itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGlen Allen runs about 228 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
MeasuredGlen Allen sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Glen Allen is in
Glen Allen sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Glen Allen's own centroid rather than borrowed from Fayette County.
What Grows in Glen Allen
Every plant below cleared Glen Allen's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Glen Allen?
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 Feb 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Glen Allen
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Glen Allen. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOE STEWARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GLEN ALLEN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- MARION COUNTY DIST 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DAN'S TRUCKINGBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- B&M GROCERY (JACKY'S PLACE)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- HARROD WAREHOUSE (DUCKS PLACE)Underground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- R&T PRICE OIL CO., INC.Brownfields · 3.1 mi
- GUIN WATER & SEWER BOARDPFAS · 3.3 mi
- WINFIELD WATER WORKS & SEWER BOARDPFAS · 3.3 mi
- TIFFIN MOTORHOMES, INC. - WINFIELD FACILITYBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- UNITED PARCEL SERVICE WINFIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- WINFIELD - UPSBrownfields · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Glen Allen'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 Glen Allen.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Glen Allen
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Glen Allen
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Glen Allen
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Glen Allen, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Glen Allen — CAFO (8 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Glen Allen
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 Glen Allen average
Your land is one point inside Glen Allen
Everything above resolves to Glen Allen as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Glen Allen Average
Glen Allen Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Glen Allen
- ●One soil character for all of Glen Allen
- ●Frost dates read at Glen Allen's scale: Mar 25 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Glen Allen's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Glen Allen
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Glen Allen, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Glen Allen averages can't show:
We read public map data around Glen Allen — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Glen Allen average
How we know this about Glen Allen
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 Glen Allen’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 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 Glen Allen
When does frost risk typically end in Glen Allen?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Allen typically lands around Mar 25, 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 15.
When is the first frost in Glen Allen?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Glen Allen typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Glen Allen?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Glen Allen sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 25 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 15 to Oct 25, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Glen Allen?
The federal record around Glen Allen shows 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Glen Allen?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Glen Allen's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Glen Allen'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 Glen Allen’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Glen Allen's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,177 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Glen Allen's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Glen Allen's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 25 and Nov 8 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Glen Allen, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Glen Allen's boundary and the 4,177 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Glen Allen's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Glen Allen's 4,177 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 Glen Allen's 4,177 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Glen Allen you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,177 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.3 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 Glen Allen-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaGlen Allen sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.