Gu-Win, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Gu-Win, 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 Gu-Win 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 Gu-Win — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gu-Win — the short answer
Gu-Win, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- 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 7b is Gu-Win's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gu-Win's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gu-Win
Each reading below is measured for Gu-Win itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGu-Win runs about 224 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
MeasuredGu-Win 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 Gu-Win is in
Gu-Win sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gu-Win's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Gu-Win
Every plant below cleared Gu-Win's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gu-Win?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 28 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Gu-Win
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gu-Win. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCCLUSKEY LUMBER & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Well Y-2 J.W. SHIRLEY Marion Cnty ALNitrate · 1.2 mi
- FATTS FUEL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #362Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- PHILLIPS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- CAVALIER MFG. BUCCANEER HOMES PLANT 3 DIV.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- MOORES SHELL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Well T-9 TOWN OF GUIN Marion County AlNitrate · 2.2 mi
- GATEWAY ADVANTAGE HOMESToxics Release Inventory · 2.2 mi
- HENRY HUBBERT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- 3M CO - GUINBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- 3M CO - GUINToxics Release Inventory · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gu-Win'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 Gu-Win.
Total Sites
132
within ~10 miles of Gu-Win
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gu-Win
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gu-Win
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gu-Win, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gu-Win — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (93 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gu-Win
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 Gu-Win average
Your land is one point inside Gu-Win
Everything above resolves to Gu-Win 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 Gu-Win Average
Gu-Win Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gu-Win
- ●One soil character for all of Gu-Win
- ●Frost dates read at Gu-Win's scale: Mar 28 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gu-Win's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gu-Win
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gu-Win, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gu-Win averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gu-Win — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gu-Win average
How we know this about Gu-Win
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 Gu-Win’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 Gu-Win
When does frost risk typically end in Gu-Win?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gu-Win typically lands around Mar 28, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Gu-Win?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gu-Win typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gu-Win?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gu-Win sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 28 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 18 to Oct 24, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gu-Win?
The federal record around Gu-Win shows 132 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Gu-Win?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gu-Win's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gu-Win'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 Gu-Win’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gu-Win's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,244 acres it covers and 132 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gu-Win's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gu-Win's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 28 and Nov 7 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 132 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gu-Win, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gu-Win's boundary and the 1,244 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gu-Win's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gu-Win's 1,244 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gu-Win's 1,244 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gu-Win you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,244 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Gu-Win-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaGu-Win sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides