Jacksons' Gap, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Jacksons' Gap, 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 Jacksons' Gap 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 Jacksons' Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jacksons' Gap — the short answer
Jacksons' Gap, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 Tallapoosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Jacksons' Gap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jacksons' Gap's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jacksons' Gap
Each reading below is measured for Jacksons' Gap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsJacksons' Gap runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Tallapoosa County, the closest normal to Jacksons' Gap) — 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
MeasuredJacksons' Gap 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 Jacksons' Gap is in
Jacksons' Gap sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jacksons' Gap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tallapoosa County.
What Grows in Jacksons' Gap
Every plant below cleared Jacksons' Gap's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Jacksons' Gap?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Jacksons' Gap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jacksons' Gap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MCBRIDES MARKET PLACEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- KIMBERLY CLARK CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BAKER'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JACKSONS GAP WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 2.0 mi
- TIM'S KWIK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- E & J ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- THORNTON OIL CO INC BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HORSESHOE BEND GEN MERUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- PHILLIPS 66 CO #017246Underground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- ALEX CITY TIREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- GUERDON INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- SCOTTS - RANDYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jacksons' Gap'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 Jacksons' Gap.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of Jacksons' Gap
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jacksons' Gap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jacksons' Gap
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jacksons' Gap, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jacksons' Gap — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (147 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Jacksons' Gap
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 Jacksons' Gap average
Your land is one point inside Jacksons' Gap
Everything above resolves to Jacksons' Gap as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tallapoosa 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 Jacksons' Gap Average
Jacksons' Gap Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Jacksons' Gap
- ●One soil character for all of Jacksons' Gap
- ●Frost dates read at Jacksons' Gap's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jacksons' Gap's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jacksons' Gap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jacksons' Gap, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jacksons' Gap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jacksons' Gap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jacksons' Gap average
How we know this about Jacksons' Gap
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 Tallapoosa 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 Jacksons' Gap
When does frost risk typically end in Jacksons' Gap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jacksons' Gap typically lands around Mar 10, 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 Mar 31.
When is the first frost in Jacksons' Gap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jacksons' Gap typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jacksons' Gap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jacksons' Gap sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 8, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jacksons' Gap?
The federal record around Jacksons' Gap shows 183 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (147), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Jacksons' Gap?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jacksons' Gap's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jacksons' Gap'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 Jacksons' Gap’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Jacksons' Gap's own scale — the 5,450 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jacksons' Gap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jacksons' Gap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jacksons' Gap's boundary and the 5,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Jacksons' Gap's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Jacksons' Gap has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tallapoosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jacksons' Gap's 5,450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallapoosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallapoosa 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 Tallapoosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jacksons' Gap's 5,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jacksons' Gap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,450 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 Jacksons' Gap-wide figureread your own land →
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