La Fayette, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 La Fayette, 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 La Fayette 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 La Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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La Fayette — the short answer
La Fayette, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Chambers County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is La Fayette's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against La Fayette's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in La Fayette
Each reading below is measured for La Fayette itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLa Fayette runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Chambers County, the closest normal to La Fayette) — 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
MeasuredLa Fayette 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 La Fayette is in
La Fayette sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at La Fayette's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chambers County.
What Grows in La Fayette
Every plant below cleared La Fayette's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in La Fayette?
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 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 La Fayette
Closest first, within ~10 miles of La Fayette. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BROWNS SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- BIG CAT LAFAYETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- LAFAYETTE MAIN - 12741Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- CIRCLE K STORE #6688Underground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CITY OF LAFAYETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- CHARLIE'S SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- PIEDMONT FORESTERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- CARLS AUTO SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LAFAYETTE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 700 ft
- GLENN MCCLENDON TRUCK COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- SLAUGHTERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- COUNTY SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from La Fayette'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 La Fayette.
Total Sites
69
within ~10 miles of La Fayette
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of La Fayette
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of La Fayette
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around La Fayette, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of La Fayette — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (54 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 La Fayette
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 La Fayette average
Your land is one point inside La Fayette
Everything above resolves to La Fayette as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chambers County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 La Fayette Average
La Fayette Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across La Fayette
- ●One soil character for all of La Fayette
- ●Frost dates read at La Fayette's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not La Fayette's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in La Fayette
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in La Fayette, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that La Fayette averages can't show:
We read public map data around La Fayette — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the La Fayette average
How we know this about La Fayette
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 Chambers 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 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 La Fayette
When does frost risk typically end in La Fayette?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in La Fayette typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in La Fayette?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in La Fayette typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in La Fayette?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, La Fayette sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 31, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in La Fayette?
The federal record around La Fayette is a meaningful one — 69 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (54), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 La Fayette?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at La Fayette's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of La Fayette'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 La Fayette’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at La Fayette's own scale — the 5,668 acres it covers and 69 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- La Fayette's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 69 documented contamination sites on the federal record near La Fayette, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- La Fayette's boundary and the 5,668 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at La Fayette's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — La Fayette has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chambers County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so La Fayette's 5,668 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chambers County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chambers 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 Chambers County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among La Fayette's 5,668 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of La Fayette you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,668 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 La Fayette-wide figureread your own land →
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