Margaret, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Margaret, 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 Margaret 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 Margaret — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Margaret — the short answer
Margaret, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- St. Clair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- St. Clair County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~239
- St. Clair 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 St. Clair County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Margaret's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Margaret's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Margaret
Each reading below is measured for Margaret itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMargaret runs about 239 days between hard freezes (read from St. Clair County, the closest normal to Margaret) — 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
MeasuredMargaret 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 Margaret is in
Margaret sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Margaret's own centroid rather than borrowed from St. Clair County.
What Grows in Margaret
Every plant below cleared Margaret's own zone 8a and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Margaret?
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 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Margaret
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Margaret. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MARGARET FOOD MART #17Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- MARGARET MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DAVIS TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- FAST TRIP CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- LIL MART INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- MARGARET WATER WORKSPFAS · 2.4 mi
- MONTCLAIR TRANSMISSIONBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- ODENVILLE DISCOUNT STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- RJ'S #11 ODENVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ODENVILLE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- ELBOW GAP II RR AND TOWER - 15440Underground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- ALABAMA OIL & GAS RECOVERY, INC.Superfund · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Margaret'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 Margaret.
Total Sites
253
within ~10 miles of Margaret
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Margaret
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Margaret
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Margaret, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Margaret — Superfund (6 sites) and CAFO (4 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Margaret
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 Margaret average
Your land is one point inside Margaret
Everything above resolves to Margaret as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from St. Clair 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 Margaret Average
Margaret Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Margaret
- ●One soil character for all of Margaret
- ●Frost dates read at Margaret's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Margaret's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Margaret
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Margaret, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Margaret averages can't show:
We read public map data around Margaret — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Margaret average
How we know this about Margaret
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 St. Clair 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 Margaret
When does frost risk typically end in Margaret?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Margaret typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Margaret?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Margaret 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 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Margaret?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Margaret sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 31, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Margaret?
The federal record around Margaret is a meaningful one — 253 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Margaret?
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 Margaret's scale — its 8a band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Margaret'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 Margaret’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Margaret's own scale — the 6,286 acres it covers and 253 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Margaret's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 253 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Margaret, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Margaret's boundary and the 6,286 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Margaret's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Margaret has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom St. Clair County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Margaret's 6,286 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom St. Clair County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom St. Clair 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 St. Clair County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Margaret's 6,286 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Margaret you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,286 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Margaret-wide figureread your own land →
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