Gulfcrest, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gulfcrest, 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 Gulfcrest 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 Gulfcrest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Gulfcrest — the short answer
Gulfcrest, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 969 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 969 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Gulfcrest's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gulfcrest's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gulfcrest
Each reading below is measured for Gulfcrest itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsGulfcrest runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Gulfcrest) — 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
MeasuredGulfcrest sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Gulfcrest is in
Gulfcrest sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gulfcrest's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mobile County.
What Grows in Gulfcrest
Every plant below cleared Gulfcrest's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gulfcrest?
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 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Gulfcrest
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gulfcrest. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DOTTIE'S GULFCREST GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Well L-8 VIRGINIA CHEMICAL CO. Mobile Cnty ALNitrate · 0.9 mi
- DAD'S DREAM TRUCKINGBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- T T TURNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- QRB ARSRUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- CITRONELLE FIRST STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- CITRONELLE SE WATER INJ FACBrownfields · 3.6 mi
- RAYMON H JONESUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Well G-8 MOBIL OIL CORP. Mobile Cnty ALNitrate · 4.3 mi
- GREEN'S TEXACO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- AZZ GALVANIZING-MOBILEToxics Release Inventory · 4.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gulfcrest'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 Gulfcrest.
Total Sites
90
within ~10 miles of Gulfcrest
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gulfcrest
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gulfcrest
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Gulfcrest
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 Gulfcrest average
Your land is one point inside Gulfcrest
Everything above resolves to Gulfcrest as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 969 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Gulfcrest Average
Gulfcrest Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Gulfcrest
- ●One soil character for all of Gulfcrest
- ●Frost dates read at Gulfcrest's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gulfcrest's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gulfcrest
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gulfcrest, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gulfcrest averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gulfcrest — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gulfcrest average
How we know this about Gulfcrest
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 Mobile 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 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 Gulfcrest
When does frost risk typically end in Gulfcrest?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gulfcrest typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Gulfcrest?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gulfcrest typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gulfcrest?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gulfcrest sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gulfcrest?
The federal record around Gulfcrest shows 90 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Gulfcrest?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gulfcrest's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gulfcrest'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 Gulfcrest’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Gulfcrest's own scale — the 969 acres it covers and 90 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gulfcrest's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 90 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gulfcrest, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gulfcrest's boundary and the 969 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gulfcrest's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Gulfcrest has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gulfcrest's 969 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile 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 Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gulfcrest's 969 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gulfcrest you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 969 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 Gulfcrest-wide figureread your own land →
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