Hollins, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Hollins, 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 Hollins 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 Hollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hollins — the short answer
Hollins, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 246 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~246
- Clay County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Clay County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Hollins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hollins's 246-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hollins
Each reading below is measured for Hollins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHollins runs about 246 days between hard freezes (read from Clay County, the closest normal to Hollins) — 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
MeasuredHollins 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 Hollins is in
Hollins sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hollins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Clay County.
What Grows in Hollins
Every plant below cleared Hollins's own zone 8a and its 246-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hollins?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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 16 — 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 Hollins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hollins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HOLLINS GENERAL STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Well V 7 330644086083801 Clay County AlNitrate · 1.2 mi
- MOSES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- HOLLINS WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- PIZZA 76Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- RACEWAY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- ALLEN FOODMART #49Underground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- BROWNING CONST & PAVING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- STEVE THOMPSONUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.1 mi
- ASTRAL INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- ASTRAL INDUSTRIES INCToxics Release Inventory · 5.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hollins'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 Hollins.
Total Sites
162
within ~10 miles of Hollins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hollins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hollins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hollins, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hollins — Superfund (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Hollins
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 Hollins average
Your land is one point inside Hollins
Everything above resolves to Hollins as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Clay 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 Hollins Average
Hollins Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Hollins
- ●One soil character for all of Hollins
- ●Frost dates read at Hollins's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hollins's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hollins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hollins, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hollins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hollins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hollins average
How we know this about Hollins
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 Clay 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 Hollins
When does frost risk typically end in Hollins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hollins 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 Hollins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hollins typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 246 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hollins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hollins sees about 246 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 2, about 211 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hollins?
The federal record around Hollins is a meaningful one — 162 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (98), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Hollins?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Hollins's scale — its 8a band and its 246-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hollins'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 Hollins’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Hollins's own scale — the 7,581 acres it covers and 162 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hollins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 162 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hollins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hollins's boundary and the 7,581 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~246-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hollins's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Hollins has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Clay County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hollins's 7,581 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Clay County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Clay 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 Clay County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hollins's 7,581 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hollins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,581 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Hollins-wide figureread your own land →
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