McKenzie, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in McKenzie, 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 McKenzie 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 McKenzie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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McKenzie — the short answer
McKenzie, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Butler County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Butler County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Butler County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Butler County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is McKenzie's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against McKenzie's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in McKenzie
Each reading below is measured for McKenzie itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMcKenzie runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Butler County, the closest normal to McKenzie) — 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
MeasuredMcKenzie sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 McKenzie is in
McKenzie sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at McKenzie's own centroid rather than borrowed from Butler County.
What Grows in McKenzie
Every plant below cleared McKenzie's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in McKenzie?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 McKenzie
Closest first, within ~10 miles of McKenzie. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RANDY LOWECAFO · 700 ft
- ARNOLDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ANN OR WAYNE ARNOLDUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SKIPPER'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MCKENZIE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- MR C'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Well W 5 MKNZIE UNUSED CW 313221086430801Nitrate · 0.7 mi
- BUSH EXXON TIRE CENTER LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- GLENN KINGS AST AT MCKENZIE ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- LEE'S GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BALDWINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- RANDY SMITHCAFO · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from McKenzie'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 McKenzie.
Total Sites
84
within ~10 miles of McKenzie
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of McKenzie
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of McKenzie
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around McKenzie, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of McKenzie — CAFO (12 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (52 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in McKenzie
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 McKenzie average
Your land is one point inside McKenzie
Everything above resolves to McKenzie as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Butler 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 McKenzie Average
McKenzie Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across McKenzie
- ●One soil character for all of McKenzie
- ●Frost dates read at McKenzie's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not McKenzie's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in McKenzie
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in McKenzie, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that McKenzie averages can't show:
We read public map data around McKenzie — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the McKenzie average
How we know this about McKenzie
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 Butler 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 McKenzie
When does frost risk typically end in McKenzie?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in McKenzie typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in McKenzie?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in McKenzie typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in McKenzie?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, McKenzie sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 13, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in McKenzie?
The federal record around McKenzie shows 84 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (52), the nearest CAFO record about 0.1 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in McKenzie?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at McKenzie's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of McKenzie'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 McKenzie’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at McKenzie's own scale — the 2,383 acres it covers and 84 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- McKenzie's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 84 documented contamination sites on the federal record near McKenzie, the closest CAFO record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- McKenzie's boundary and the 2,383 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at McKenzie's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — McKenzie has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Butler County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so McKenzie's 2,383 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Butler County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Butler 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 Butler County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among McKenzie's 2,383 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of McKenzie you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,383 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.1 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 McKenzie-wide figureread your own land →
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