Memphis, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Memphis, 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 Memphis 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 Memphis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Memphis — the short answer
Memphis, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 248 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Pickens County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 248 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 Pickens County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Memphis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Memphis's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Memphis
Each reading below is measured for Memphis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMemphis runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Pickens County, the closest normal to Memphis) — 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
MeasuredMemphis 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 Memphis is in
Memphis sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Memphis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Pickens County.
What Grows in Memphis
Every plant below cleared Memphis's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Memphis?
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 Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Memphis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Memphis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 103K0003 NOXUBEENitrate · 1.4 mi
- Well P 26 331107088180302 Pickens Cnty ALNitrate · 3.3 mi
- Well P 25 331107088180301 Pickens Cnty ALNitrate · 3.3 mi
- Well Z-5 G.C. SANDERS Pickens Cnty ALNitrate · 3.9 mi
- Well P-15 CORPS OF ENGINEERS Pickens Cnty ALNitrate · 5.2 mi
- TWIN STATE COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MARTIN TRUCK AND TRACTOR COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MACMILLAN BLOEDEL INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- ALICEVILLE CASTING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- JR FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
- MARTIN HOG FARMCAFO · 5.9 mi
- DRAX BIOMASS INCToxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Memphis'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 Memphis.
Total Sites
93
within ~10 miles of Memphis
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
5 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Memphis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Memphis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Memphis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Memphis — CAFO (4 sites) and Nitrate (38 sites). 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Memphis
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 Memphis average
Your land is one point inside Memphis
Everything above resolves to Memphis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 248 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Pickens 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 Memphis Average
Memphis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Memphis
- ●One soil character for all of Memphis
- ●Frost dates read at Memphis's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Memphis's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Memphis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Memphis, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Memphis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Memphis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Memphis average
How we know this about Memphis
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 Pickens 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 Memphis
When does frost risk typically end in Memphis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Memphis typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Memphis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Memphis typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Memphis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Memphis sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 7, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Memphis?
The federal record around Memphis shows 93 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Memphis?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Memphis's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Memphis'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 Memphis’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Memphis's own scale — the 248 acres it covers and 93 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Memphis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 93 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Memphis, the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Memphis's boundary and the 248 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Memphis's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Memphis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Pickens County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Memphis's 248 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Pickens County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Pickens 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 Pickens County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Memphis's 248 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Memphis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 248 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 1.4 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 Memphis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaMemphis sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides