Gordo, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Gordo, 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 Gordo 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 Gordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gordo — the short answer
Gordo, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Pickens County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Gordo's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gordo's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gordo
Each reading below is measured for Gordo itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGordo runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pickens County, the closest normal to Gordo) — 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
MeasuredGordo 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 Gordo is in
Gordo sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gordo's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pickens County.
What Grows in Gordo
Every plant below cleared Gordo's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gordo?
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 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Gordo
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gordo. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PICKENS COUNTY BARN WORK CENTER 5Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- GORDO HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1000 ft
- UNION CAMP CORP GORDOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GORDO TD 2 AR 6 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GORDON HIGH SHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- PECO FARMS FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1600 ft
- Well K-33 GORDO CITY WELL Pickens County AlNitrate · 1800 ft
- CIRCLE K 2709062Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- GORDO GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- HIXSONS PARADEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- GILLIAMS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4969Brownfields · 2600 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gordo'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 Gordo.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Gordo
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gordo
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gordo
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gordo, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 12 sites within ~10 miles of Gordo. 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 Gordo
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 Gordo average
Your land is one point inside Gordo
Everything above resolves to Gordo as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pickens County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Gordo Average
Gordo Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gordo
- ●One soil character for all of Gordo
- ●Frost dates read at Gordo's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gordo's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gordo
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gordo, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gordo averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gordo — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gordo average
How we know this about Gordo
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 Pickens 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 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 Gordo
When does frost risk typically end in Gordo?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gordo typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Gordo?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gordo typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gordo?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gordo sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 7, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gordo?
The federal record around Gordo shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gordo?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gordo's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gordo'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 Gordo’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gordo's own scale — the 2,082 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gordo's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gordo, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gordo's boundary and the 2,082 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gordo's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gordo has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pickens County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gordo's 2,082 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pickens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pickens 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 Pickens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gordo's 2,082 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gordo you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,082 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Gordo-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaGordo sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides