Gurley, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gurley, 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 Gurley 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 Gurley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gurley — the short answer
Gurley, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Gurley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gurley's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gurley
Each reading below is measured for Gurley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGurley runs about 244 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
MeasuredGurley 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 Gurley is in
Gurley sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gurley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Gurley
Every plant below cleared Gurley's own zone 8a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gurley?
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 Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Gurley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gurley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MADISON COUNTY HIGH -OLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SAFETY-KLEEN CORPORATION-GURLEYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- TDY INDUSTRIES INC - ATI FIRTH STERLINGBrownfields · 1300 ft
- TDY INDUSTRIES INC - ATI FIRTH STERLINGToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- MAPCO #5210Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- COOPER COUNTRY MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- JAY'S GURLEY CHEVRON #251Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- TELEDYNE FIRTH STERLINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MOSS LUMBER COMPANYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- CLYDE'S US GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- BELLSOUTH GURLEY MAIN 11803Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- COURTESY USED CARS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gurley'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 Gurley.
Total Sites
135
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gurley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gurley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gurley — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Gurley
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 Gurley average
Your land is one point inside Gurley
Everything above resolves to Gurley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Gurley Average
Gurley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gurley
- ●One soil character for all of Gurley
- ●Frost dates read at Gurley's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gurley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gurley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gurley, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gurley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gurley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gurley average
How we know this about Gurley
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 Gurley’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 Gurley
When does frost risk typically end in Gurley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gurley typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Gurley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gurley typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gurley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gurley sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 31, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gurley?
The federal record around Gurley is a meaningful one — 135 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gurley?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gurley's scale — its 8a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gurley'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 Gurley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gurley's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,355 acres it covers and 135 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gurley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gurley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 14 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 135 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gurley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gurley's boundary and the 2,355 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gurley's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gurley's 2,355 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gurley's 2,355 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gurley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,355 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Gurley-wide figureread your own land →