Guin, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Guin, 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 Guin 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 Guin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Guin — the short answer
Guin, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 223 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~223
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 10K 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 Guin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guin's 223-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guin
Each reading below is measured for Guin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuin runs about 223 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
MeasuredGuin 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 Guin is in
Guin sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Guin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Guin
Every plant below cleared Guin's own zone 7b and its 223-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guin?
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 Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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 Guin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DEER VALLEY HOMEBUILDERS INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- GUIN NATIONAL GUARD CANTEENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- COUNTRY MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- UNIVERSAL FOREST PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- BIRMINGHAM COCA COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GUIN HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- PLAZA SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- POSEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- 3M CO - GUINBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- 3M CO - GUINToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- GATEWAY ADVANTAGE HOMESToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- Well T-9 TOWN OF GUIN Marion County AlNitrate · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guin'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 Guin.
Total Sites
127
within ~10 miles of Guin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Guin — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (90 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 Guin
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 Guin average
Your land is one point inside Guin
Everything above resolves to Guin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 city 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 Guin Average
Guin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Guin
- ●One soil character for all of Guin
- ●Frost dates read at Guin's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guin's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guin, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guin average
How we know this about Guin
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Guin’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Guin
When does frost risk typically end in Guin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guin typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Guin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guin 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 223 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guin sees about 223 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 24, about 188 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guin?
The federal record around Guin is a meaningful one — 127 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.9 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 Guin?
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 Guin's scale — its 7b band and its 223-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guin'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 Guin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guin's own scale — its own ~223-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,584 acres it covers and 127 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 7 and the ~223-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 127 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guin, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guin's boundary and the 9,584 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~223-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guin's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Guin's 9,584 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 Guin's 9,584 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,584 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.9 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 Guin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaGuin sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.