Locust Fork, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Locust Fork, 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 Locust Fork 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 Locust Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Locust Fork — the short answer
Locust Fork, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Locust Fork's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Locust Fork's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Locust Fork
Each reading below is measured for Locust Fork itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLocust Fork runs about 244 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
MeasuredLocust Fork 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 Locust Fork is in
Locust Fork sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Locust Fork's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in Locust Fork
Every plant below cleared Locust Fork's own zone 8a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Locust Fork?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Locust Fork
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Locust Fork. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AL0003Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- HALLMARK TRUCKINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- HALLAWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- PAUL C MARSH & SONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LOCUST FORK PRODUCE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- LOCUST FORK HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- LOCUST FORK HARDWARE PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- PINE BLUFF WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 3.5 mi
- SUGAR CREEK GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- SOUTHEASTERN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- BLOUNT RECYCLINGToxics Release Inventory · 4.8 mi
- HAYES SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Locust Fork'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 Locust Fork.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Locust Fork
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Locust Fork
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Locust Fork
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Locust Fork, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Locust Fork. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Locust Fork
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 Locust Fork average
Your land is one point inside Locust Fork
Everything above resolves to Locust Fork as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Locust Fork Average
Locust Fork Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Locust Fork
- ●One soil character for all of Locust Fork
- ●Frost dates read at Locust Fork's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Locust Fork's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Locust Fork
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Locust Fork, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Locust Fork averages can't show:
We read public map data around Locust Fork — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Locust Fork average
How we know this about Locust Fork
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 Locust Fork’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 Locust Fork
When does frost risk typically end in Locust Fork?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Locust Fork typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Locust Fork?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Locust Fork 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 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Locust Fork?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Locust Fork sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 2, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Locust Fork?
The federal record around Locust Fork is a meaningful one — 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Locust Fork?
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 Locust Fork's scale — its 8a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Locust Fork'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 Locust Fork’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Locust Fork's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,493 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Locust Fork's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Locust Fork's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 16 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Locust Fork, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Locust Fork's boundary and the 2,493 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Locust Fork's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Locust Fork's 2,493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blount County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blount 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 Blount County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Locust Fork's 2,493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Locust Fork you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,493 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Locust Fork-wide figureread your own land →
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