Graham, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Graham, 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 Graham 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 Graham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Graham — the short answer
Graham, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- 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 8a is Graham's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Graham's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Graham
Each reading below is measured for Graham itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGraham runs about 240 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
MeasuredGraham 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 Graham is in
Graham sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Graham's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Graham
Every plant below cleared Graham'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 Graham?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Graham
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Graham. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H FLOY LOVVORNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- ARRINGTON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DEB'S FOOD STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HOPPER FARMCAFO · 2600 ft
- GRAHAM SMALL ENGINESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BUCKTOWN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SARDIS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- HAL TURNER FARMCAFO · 2.8 mi
- LITTLE RIVER FARMS INCCAFO · 2.9 mi
- SPRATLIN GROCERY MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- CHOI FARMCAFO · 3.0 mi
- L & SUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Graham'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 Graham.
Total Sites
131
within ~10 miles of Graham
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Graham
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Graham
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Graham, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Graham — CAFO (30 sites) and Mining (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Graham
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 Graham average
Your land is one point inside Graham
Everything above resolves to Graham 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 Graham Average
Graham Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Graham
- ●One soil character for all of Graham
- ●Frost dates read at Graham's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Graham's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Graham
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Graham, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Graham averages can't show:
We read public map data around Graham — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Graham average
How we know this about Graham
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 Graham’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 Graham
When does frost risk typically end in Graham?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Graham typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Graham?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Graham typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Graham?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Graham sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 1, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Graham?
The federal record around Graham is a meaningful one — 131 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (79), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Graham?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Graham's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Graham'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 Graham’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Graham's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,747 acres it covers and 131 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Graham's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Graham's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 15 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 131 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Graham, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Graham's boundary and the 3,747 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 Graham's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Graham's 3,747 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Graham's 3,747 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Graham you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,747 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Graham-wide figureread your own land →
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