Lockhart, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lockhart, 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 Lockhart 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 Lockhart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lockhart — the short answer
Lockhart, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 287 days between hard freezes, across 696 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~287
- Covington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 696 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 Covington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Lockhart's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lockhart's 287-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lockhart
Each reading below is measured for Lockhart itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLockhart runs about 287 days between hard freezes (read from Covington County, the closest normal to Lockhart) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLockhart sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Lockhart is in
Lockhart sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lockhart's own centroid rather than borrowed from Covington County.
What Grows in Lockhart
Every plant below cleared Lockhart's own zone 9a and its 287-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lockhart?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Lockhart
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lockhart. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- INTERNATIONAL PAPER COUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Well Cc 2 310036086205401 Covington County AlNitrate · 1200 ft
- HARLAN SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FLORALA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- FLORALA HIGHBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- ZIPPY MART AL 607Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CURRIE & MCCREARY OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- COVINGTON COUNTY SHOP DIST 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- P&C #115 (LIBERTY)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- D & J EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- ADVANCED THERMAL COATINGS, INC.Superfund · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lockhart'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 Lockhart.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Lockhart
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lockhart
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lockhart
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lockhart, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 4 sites within ~10 miles of Lockhart. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Lockhart
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 Lockhart average
Your land is one point inside Lockhart
Everything above resolves to Lockhart as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 696 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Covington 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 Lockhart Average
Lockhart Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Lockhart
- ●One soil character for all of Lockhart
- ●Frost dates read at Lockhart's scale: Feb 19 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lockhart's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lockhart
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lockhart, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lockhart averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lockhart — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lockhart average
How we know this about Lockhart
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 Covington 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 Lockhart
When does frost risk typically end in Lockhart?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lockhart typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Lockhart?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lockhart typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 287 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lockhart?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lockhart sees about 287 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 19, about 252 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lockhart?
The federal record around Lockhart is a meaningful one — 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), 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 Lockhart?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lockhart's scale — its 9a band and its 287-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lockhart'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 Lockhart’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lockhart's own scale — the 696 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lockhart's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lockhart, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lockhart's boundary and the 696 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~287-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lockhart's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lockhart has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Covington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lockhart's 696 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Covington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Covington 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 Covington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lockhart's 696 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lockhart you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 696 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 Lockhart-wide figureread your own land →