Henagar, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Henagar, 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 Henagar 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 Henagar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Henagar — the short answer
Henagar, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 14K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 14K 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 7b is Henagar's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Henagar's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Henagar
Each reading below is measured for Henagar itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHenagar runs about 246 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
MeasuredHenagar sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Henagar is in
Henagar sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Henagar's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Henagar
Every plant below cleared Henagar's own zone 7b and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Henagar?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Henagar
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Henagar. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HENAGAR CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WILLIAMS SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- ALLEN POULTRY FARMSCAFO · 1.2 mi
- BIDDLE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- MAPCO 5160Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RALPH ROBERTS STAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SWIFTY MART #6Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TOWN OF HENAGAR CITY HALLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- NORTHRIDGE & CLEARVIEW FARMSCAFO · 1.8 mi
- WRIGHT FARMSCAFO · 1.9 mi
- MURDOCK FARMSCAFO · 1.9 mi
- SHANE WOOTTEN FARMSCAFO · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Henagar'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 Henagar.
Total Sites
159
within ~10 miles of Henagar
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Henagar
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Henagar
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Henagar, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 68 sites within ~10 miles of Henagar. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Henagar
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 Henagar average
Your land is one point inside Henagar
Everything above resolves to Henagar as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 14K 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 Henagar Average
Henagar Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Henagar
- ●One soil character for all of Henagar
- ●Frost dates read at Henagar's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Henagar's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Henagar
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Henagar, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Henagar averages can't show:
We read public map data around Henagar — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Henagar average
How we know this about Henagar
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 Henagar’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 Henagar
When does frost risk typically end in Henagar?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Henagar typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Henagar?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Henagar typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Henagar?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Henagar sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 4, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Henagar?
The federal record around Henagar shows 159 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Henagar?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Henagar's scale — its 7b band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Henagar'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 Henagar’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Henagar's own scale — its own ~246-day season between 28°F freezes, the 14,469 acres it covers and 159 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Henagar's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Henagar's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 18 and the ~246-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 159 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Henagar, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Henagar's boundary and the 14,469 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Henagar's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Henagar's 14,469 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Henagar's 14,469 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Henagar you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 14,469 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Henagar-wide figureread your own land →
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