Leighton, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Leighton, 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 Leighton 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 Leighton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Leighton — the short answer
Leighton, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- 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
- ~255
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 8a is Leighton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leighton's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Leighton
Each reading below is measured for Leighton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLeighton runs about 255 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
MeasuredLeighton 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 Leighton is in
Leighton sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Leighton's own centroid rather than borrowed from Colbert County.
What Grows in Leighton
Every plant below cleared Leighton's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Leighton?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (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 Leighton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Leighton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COLBERT FARMERS CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Well K-21 City of Leighton AlNitrate · 1700 ft
- AUSTIN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BELLSOUTH LEIGHTON MAIN 11141Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WILLIS & OLIVER SUPERETTEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WALDREP & GARRIE STATION & DINERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- MSL-VOR AVAITIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- BAMA COREBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- EHR-LUS28Nitrate · 1.3 mi
- Well (L-64) U.S. GEOL.SURVEY Colbert Cnty ALNitrate · 1.9 mi
- TRIGREEN EQUIPMENT LLCBrownfields · 2.3 mi
- EHR-LUS33Nitrate · 2.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leighton'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 Leighton.
Total Sites
347
within ~10 miles of Leighton
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Leighton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Leighton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leighton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Leighton — CAFO (26 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Leighton
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 Leighton average
Your land is one point inside Leighton
Everything above resolves to Leighton as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 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 Leighton Average
Leighton Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Leighton
- ●One soil character for all of Leighton
- ●Frost dates read at Leighton's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leighton's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Leighton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leighton, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leighton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leighton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leighton average
How we know this about Leighton
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 Leighton’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 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 Leighton
When does frost risk typically end in Leighton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leighton typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Leighton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Leighton 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 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Leighton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leighton sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 4, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leighton?
The federal record around Leighton is a meaningful one — 347 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Leighton?
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 Leighton's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leighton'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 Leighton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Leighton's own scale — its own ~255-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,380 acres it covers and 347 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leighton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leighton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 18 and the ~255-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 347 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Leighton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Leighton's boundary and the 1,380 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Leighton's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Leighton's 1,380 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Colbert County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Colbert 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 Colbert County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leighton's 1,380 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Leighton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,380 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Leighton-wide figureread your own land →