Meridianville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Meridianville, 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 Meridianville 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 Meridianville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Meridianville — the short answer
Meridianville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 10K 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 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 10K 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 Meridianville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meridianville's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Meridianville
Each reading below is measured for Meridianville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMeridianville runs about 238 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
MeasuredMeridianville 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 Meridianville is in
Meridianville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Meridianville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Meridianville
Every plant below cleared Meridianville's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Meridianville?
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 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 10 — 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 Meridianville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Meridianville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HAZEL GREEN MAIN - 11809Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #2042Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #203Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #5316Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- SHELL FOOD MART #311Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- UNDERWOOD AVIATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- MERIDIANVILLE LIBERTY #56Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- UNITED CIRCUITS INCBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- NORTH HUNTSVILLE AIRPORT (M-82)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- YULISTA INTEGRATED SOLUTIONS, INC.Brownfields · 2.0 mi
- ROBERT MEADOR WAREHOUSING AND DISTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- RACEWAY #927 (WATERS GEN. MERCH.)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meridianville'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 Meridianville.
Total Sites
482
within ~10 miles of Meridianville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
6 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Meridianville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Meridianville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meridianville, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Meridianville. 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.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Meridianville
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 Meridianville average
Your land is one point inside Meridianville
Everything above resolves to Meridianville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 10K 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 Meridianville Average
Meridianville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Meridianville
- ●One soil character for all of Meridianville
- ●Frost dates read at Meridianville's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meridianville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Meridianville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meridianville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meridianville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meridianville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meridianville average
How we know this about Meridianville
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 Meridianville’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 Meridianville
When does frost risk typically end in Meridianville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meridianville 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 Meridianville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Meridianville typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Meridianville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meridianville sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 27, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meridianville?
The federal record around Meridianville is a meaningful one — 482 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (279), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Meridianville?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Meridianville's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meridianville'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 Meridianville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Meridianville's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,956 acres it covers and 482 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meridianville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meridianville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 10 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 482 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Meridianville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Meridianville's boundary and the 9,956 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Meridianville's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Meridianville's 9,956 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Meridianville's 9,956 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Meridianville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,956 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 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 Meridianville-wide figureread your own land →