Megargel, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Megargel, 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 Megargel 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 Megargel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Megargel — the short answer
Megargel, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 284 days between hard freezes, across 440 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~284
- Monroe County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 440 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 Monroe County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Megargel's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Megargel's 284-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Megargel
Each reading below is measured for Megargel itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMegargel runs about 284 days between hard freezes (read from Monroe County, the closest normal to Megargel) — 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
MeasuredMegargel 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 Megargel is in
Megargel sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Megargel's own centroid rather than borrowed from Monroe County.
What Grows in Megargel
Every plant below cleared Megargel's own zone 8b and its 284-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Megargel?
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 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Megargel
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Megargel. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FARMERS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LOWE'S QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- KAISER ESTECH-MEGARGELUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FRISCO MANUFACTURINGUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- GORUM'SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- JR FOOD STORE #105Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- FRISCO CITY STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- DANNY BOOKERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GOODWAY WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- BETTYS GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- FRISCO MFG COBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- BOISE CASCADE FRISCO CITY WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Megargel'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 Megargel.
Total Sites
74
within ~10 miles of Megargel
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Megargel
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Megargel
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Megargel, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 53 sites within ~10 miles of Megargel. 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 Megargel
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 Megargel average
Your land is one point inside Megargel
Everything above resolves to Megargel as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 440 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Monroe 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 Megargel Average
Megargel Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Megargel
- ●One soil character for all of Megargel
- ●Frost dates read at Megargel's scale: Feb 20 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Megargel's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Megargel
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Megargel, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Megargel averages can't show:
We read public map data around Megargel — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Megargel average
How we know this about Megargel
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 Monroe 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 Megargel
When does frost risk typically end in Megargel?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Megargel typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 13.
When is the first frost in Megargel?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Megargel typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 284 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Megargel?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Megargel sees about 284 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 17, about 249 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Megargel?
The federal record around Megargel shows 74 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (53), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Megargel?
From about Nov 1 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 1 (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 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Megargel's scale — its 8b band and its 284-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Megargel'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 Megargel’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Megargel's own scale — the 440 acres it covers and 74 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Megargel's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 74 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Megargel, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Megargel's boundary and the 440 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~284-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Megargel's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Megargel has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Monroe County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Megargel's 440 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Monroe County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Monroe 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 Monroe County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Megargel's 440 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Megargel you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 440 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Megargel-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaMegargel sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides