Goldville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Goldville, 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 Goldville 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 Goldville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Goldville — the short answer
Goldville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 631 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 631 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 8a is Goldville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Goldville's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Goldville
Each reading below is measured for Goldville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGoldville runs about 247 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
MeasuredGoldville 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 Goldville is in
Goldville sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Goldville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tallapoosa County.
What Grows in Goldville
Every plant below cleared Goldville's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Goldville?
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 14; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 14 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Goldville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Goldville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SPANN FARMSCAFO · 1400 ft
- JORDAN GROCERY/ GOLDVILLE CONNECTIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- NORTON FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
- KING TRAIL FARMSCAFO · 2.7 mi
- TOBY HANSON POULTRY FARMCAFO · 2.7 mi
- NEW SITE FOODLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- INGRAM POULTRY HOUSESCAFO · 2.9 mi
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #174Underground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- MILLER TIME FARMCAFO · 3.8 mi
- COUNTY SHOP DISTRICT #2Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- GOLDVILLE TD-2 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- EDGAR WATLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Goldville'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 Goldville.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Goldville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 mining site (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Goldville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Goldville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Goldville, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 18 sites within ~10 miles of Goldville. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Goldville
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 Goldville average
Your land is one point inside Goldville
Everything above resolves to Goldville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 631 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 Goldville Average
Goldville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Goldville
- ●One soil character for all of Goldville
- ●Frost dates read at Goldville's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Goldville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Goldville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Goldville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Goldville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Goldville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Goldville average
How we know this about Goldville
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 Goldville’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 Goldville
When does frost risk typically end in Goldville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Goldville typically lands around Mar 14, 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 4.
When is the first frost in Goldville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Goldville typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Goldville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Goldville sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Nov 2, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Goldville?
The federal record around Goldville shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (21), the nearest CAFO 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 Goldville?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Goldville's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Goldville'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 Goldville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Goldville's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 631 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Goldville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Goldville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 16 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Goldville, the closest CAFO record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Goldville's boundary and the 631 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Goldville's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Goldville's 631 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallapoosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallapoosa 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 Tallapoosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Goldville's 631 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Goldville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 631 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 Goldville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Growing region
Nearby growing guides