Midland City, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Midland City, 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 Midland City 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 Midland City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Midland City — the short answer
Midland City, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~291
- Dale County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K 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 Dale County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Midland City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Midland City's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Midland City
Each reading below is measured for Midland City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMidland City runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Dale County, the closest normal to Midland City) — 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
MeasuredMidland City sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Midland City is in
Midland City sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Midland City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dale County.
What Grows in Midland City
Every plant below cleared Midland City's own zone 9a and its 291-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Midland City?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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 Midland City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Midland City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E Z SERVE #4234Underground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- PARAMORE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- THONI OIL MAGIC BENZOL GAS STAT INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- TRANS FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MIDLAND CITY SHELL #141Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Circle K #2721551Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- E & H STEEL CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- MP6 FARMS LLCCAFO · 1.1 mi
- GEORGE C WALLACE COMM COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- GEORGE C WALLACE STATE COMMUNITY COLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- STOP N GO #15Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- 280TH CBCSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Midland City'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 Midland City.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Midland City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Midland City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Midland City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Midland City — CAFO (26 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (312 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Midland City
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 Midland City average
Your land is one point inside Midland City
Everything above resolves to Midland City as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dale 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 Midland City Average
Midland City Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Midland City
- ●One soil character for all of Midland City
- ●Frost dates read at Midland City's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Midland City's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Midland City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Midland City, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Midland City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Midland City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Midland City average
How we know this about Midland City
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 Dale 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 Midland City
When does frost risk typically end in Midland City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Midland City typically lands around Feb 15, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Midland City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Midland City typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 291 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Midland City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Midland City sees about 291 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 19, about 256 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Midland City?
The federal record around Midland City is a meaningful one — 501 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (312), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Midland City?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Midland City's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Midland City'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 Midland City’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Midland City's own scale — the 3,877 acres it covers and 501 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Midland City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 501 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Midland City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Midland City's boundary and the 3,877 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~291-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Midland City's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Midland City has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dale County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Midland City's 3,877 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dale County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dale 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 Dale County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Midland City's 3,877 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Midland City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,877 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 Midland City-wide figureread your own land →
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