Hayden, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hayden, 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 Hayden 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 Hayden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Hayden — the short answer
Hayden, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- Blount County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Blount County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hayden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hayden's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hayden
Each reading below is measured for Hayden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHayden runs about 253 days between hard freezes (read from Blount County, the closest normal to Hayden) — 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
MeasuredHayden 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 Hayden is in
Hayden sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hayden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in Hayden
Every plant below cleared Hayden's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hayden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Hayden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hayden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HUMPHRIES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WHITE JOHN DBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- HAYDEN SUPER FOODSUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- RACETRAC #674Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HAYDEN HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VULCAN HAYDEN FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STANDRIDGE GROCERY BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BANGOR JET PEP #10Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- MILL CREEK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- COUNTRY JIMS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- STELLA-JONES CORPToxics Release Inventory · 4.0 mi
- HERSCHEL N THOMAS STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hayden'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 Hayden.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hayden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hayden, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Hayden. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Hayden
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 Hayden average
Your land is one point inside Hayden
Everything above resolves to Hayden as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 3K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Blount 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 Hayden Average
Hayden Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hayden
- ●One soil character for all of Hayden
- ●Frost dates read at Hayden's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hayden's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hayden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hayden, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hayden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hayden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hayden average
How we know this about Hayden
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 Blount 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 Hayden
When does frost risk typically end in Hayden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hayden typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Hayden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hayden typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hayden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hayden sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 7, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hayden?
The federal record around Hayden is a meaningful one — 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (68), 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 Hayden?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hayden's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hayden'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 Hayden’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hayden's own scale — the 2,752 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hayden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hayden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hayden's boundary and the 2,752 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hayden's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hayden has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Blount County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hayden's 2,752 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blount County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blount 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 Blount County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hayden's 2,752 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hayden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,752 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 Hayden-wide figureread your own land →
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