Hanceville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Hanceville, 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 Hanceville 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 Hanceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hanceville — the short answer
Hanceville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Hanceville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hanceville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hanceville
Each reading below is measured for Hanceville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHanceville runs about 238 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
MeasuredHanceville 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 Hanceville is in
Hanceville sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hanceville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cullman County.
What Grows in Hanceville
Every plant below cleared Hanceville's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hanceville?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Hanceville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hanceville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DALES BEVERAGESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- NETTLEBORO RADIO RELAY STA - 16229Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- HANCEVILLE MAIN - 11734Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HANCEVILLE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LAMBERTS CHEVRON SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HANCEVILLE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- MINIT 7-11 OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- PIT STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- HANCEVILLE UNION 76Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4960Brownfields · 2100 ft
- HANCEVILLE BP SPURUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Well W 9 340338086461501 Cullman County AlNitrate · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hanceville'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 Hanceville.
Total Sites
299
within ~10 miles of Hanceville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hanceville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hanceville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hanceville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hanceville — CAFO (21 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (22 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hanceville
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 Hanceville average
Your land is one point inside Hanceville
Everything above resolves to Hanceville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Hanceville Average
Hanceville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hanceville
- ●One soil character for all of Hanceville
- ●Frost dates read at Hanceville's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hanceville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hanceville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hanceville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hanceville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hanceville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hanceville average
How we know this about Hanceville
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 Hanceville’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 Hanceville
When does frost risk typically end in Hanceville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hanceville typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Hanceville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hanceville typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hanceville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hanceville sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 29, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hanceville?
The federal record around Hanceville is a meaningful one — 299 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (190), 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 Hanceville?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hanceville's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hanceville'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 Hanceville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hanceville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,820 acres it covers and 299 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hanceville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hanceville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 12 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 299 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hanceville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hanceville's boundary and the 2,820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hanceville's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hanceville's 2,820 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cullman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cullman 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 Cullman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hanceville's 2,820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hanceville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,820 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 Hanceville-wide figureread your own land →
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