Gulf Shores, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gulf Shores, 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 Gulf Shores 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 Gulf Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gulf Shores — the short answer
Gulf Shores, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 18K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 18K 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Gulf Shores's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulf Shores's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulf Shores
Each reading below is measured for Gulf Shores itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGulf Shores runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Gulf Shores) — 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
MeasuredGulf Shores sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Gulf Shores is in
Gulf Shores sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gulf Shores's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baldwin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gulf Shores
Every plant below cleared Gulf Shores's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gulf Shores?
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 Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Gulf Shores
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Gulf Shores, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gulf Shores
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulf Shores. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GULF SHORES GOLF CLUBUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BALDWIN COUNTY E M CUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- CITY OF GULF SHORESUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Circle K #2721558Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- GULF SHORES BP INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DIAMOND GASOLINE #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- PUBLIX SUPERMARKET #1672Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- JR FOOD STORE #401Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- GULF SHORES CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Well DDD 34 Baldwin County AlNitrate · 1.0 mi
- FORT MORGAN DRUMSuperfund · 1.1 mi
- WOODSON'S BARGE-NUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulf Shores'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 Gulf Shores.
Total Sites
218
within ~10 miles of Gulf Shores
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulf Shores
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulf Shores
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gulf Shores, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gulf Shores — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Gulf Shores
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 Gulf Shores average
Your land is one point inside Gulf Shores
Everything above resolves to Gulf Shores as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 18K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Gulf Shores Average
Gulf Shores Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Gulf Shores
- ●One soil character for all of Gulf Shores
- ●Frost dates read at Gulf Shores's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulf Shores's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulf Shores
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulf Shores, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulf Shores averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulf Shores — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulf Shores average
How we know this about Gulf Shores
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 Baldwin 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 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 Gulf Shores
When does frost risk typically end in Gulf Shores?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf Shores typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Gulf Shores?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gulf Shores typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gulf Shores?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gulf Shores sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulf Shores?
The federal record around Gulf Shores is a meaningful one — 218 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (119), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gulf Shores?
From about Nov 6 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 Dec 6 (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 Dec 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gulf Shores's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gulf Shores'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 Gulf Shores’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gulf Shores's own scale — the 18,362 acres it covers and 218 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulf Shores's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 218 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulf Shores, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulf Shores's boundary and the 18,362 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gulf Shores sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gulf Shoreslydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gulf Shores has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gulf Shores's 18,362 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulf Shores's 18,362 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulf Shores you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 18,362 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gulf Shores-wide figureread your own land →
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