Grant, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Grant, 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 Grant 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 Grant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grant — the short answer
Grant, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 1K 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Grant's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grant's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grant
Each reading below is measured for Grant itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrant runs about 245 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
MeasuredGrant 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 Grant is in
Grant sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grant's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Grant
Every plant below cleared Grant's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grant?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 14 — 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 Grant
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grant. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JOHN LAW HOLLOW DRUMSSuperfund · 400 ft
- SAN ANN STATION #115 GRANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- BEVELL'S GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- TREASURER HUNTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- COUNTRY FARMS CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DISTRICT 2 SHOP GRANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- GRANT 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SUTTON'S TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- FIRTH STERLINGBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- FIRTH STERLINGToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- GRANT FOOD & GARDEN CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- MARSHALL CO BOARD OF ED DAR SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grant'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 Grant.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Grant
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grant
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grant
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grant, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grant — CAFO (4 sites) and PFAS (3 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Grant
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 Grant average
Your land is one point inside Grant
Everything above resolves to Grant as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Grant Average
Grant Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Grant
- ●One soil character for all of Grant
- ●Frost dates read at Grant's scale: Mar 14 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grant's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grant
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grant, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grant averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grant — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grant average
How we know this about Grant
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 Grant’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 Grant
When does frost risk typically end in Grant?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grant 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 Grant?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grant typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grant?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grant sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 14 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 4 to Oct 31, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grant?
The federal record around Grant is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Grant?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grant's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grant'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 Grant’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grant's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,185 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grant's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grant's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 14 and Nov 14 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grant, the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grant's boundary and the 1,185 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Grant's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Grant's 1,185 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grant's 1,185 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grant you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,185 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Superfund record under a tenth of a mile 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 Grant-wide figureread your own land →
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