Guntersville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Guntersville, 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 Guntersville 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 Guntersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Guntersville — the short answer
Guntersville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Guntersville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guntersville's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guntersville
Each reading below is measured for Guntersville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuntersville runs about 272 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredGuntersville 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 Guntersville is in
Guntersville sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Guntersville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Guntersville
Every plant below cleared Guntersville's own zone 8a and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guntersville?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 30 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Guntersville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guntersville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EDITH SMITH GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GUNTERSVILLE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CONSOLIDATED BLENDERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- ALBERTVILLE WATER PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- HERCULES RUBBER COMPANYToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- HIWASSEE LAND CO BARGE LANDINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- SOUTHERN STATES CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- GOLD KIST GUNTERSVILLE FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- SOUTHERN STATES FEED MILLToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- TVA ALBERTVILLE DIESEL GENERATING STATIONBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- LAKE GUNTERSVILLE YACHT CLUB MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- ALDER SPRINGS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guntersville'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 Guntersville.
Total Sites
353
within ~10 miles of Guntersville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guntersville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guntersville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guntersville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Guntersville — CAFO (42 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Guntersville
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 Guntersville average
Your land is one point inside Guntersville
Everything above resolves to Guntersville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 16K 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 Guntersville Average
Guntersville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Guntersville
- ●One soil character for all of Guntersville
- ●Frost dates read at Guntersville's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 30
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guntersville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guntersville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guntersville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guntersville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guntersville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guntersville average
How we know this about Guntersville
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 Guntersville’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 Guntersville
When does frost risk typically end in Guntersville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guntersville typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Guntersville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guntersville typically arrives around Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 16, so the watching starts about Oct 31 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guntersville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guntersville sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 30, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 16, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guntersville?
The federal record around Guntersville is a meaningful one — 353 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (226), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Guntersville?
From about Oct 31 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 30 (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 30. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Guntersville's scale — its 8a band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guntersville'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 Guntersville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guntersville's own scale — its own ~272-day season between 28°F freezes, the 16,406 acres it covers and 353 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guntersville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guntersville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 3 and Nov 30 and the ~272-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 353 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guntersville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guntersville's boundary and the 16,406 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guntersville's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Guntersville's 16,406 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 Guntersville's 16,406 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guntersville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,406 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Guntersville-wide figureread your own land →
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