Nances Creek, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Nances Creek, 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 Nances Creek 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 Nances Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Nances Creek — the short answer
Nances Creek, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Nances Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Nances Creek's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Nances Creek
Each reading below is measured for Nances Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNances Creek runs about 240 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
MeasuredNances Creek 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 Nances Creek is in
Nances Creek sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Nances Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Nances Creek
Every plant below cleared Nances Creek's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Nances Creek?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Nances Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Nances Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PONDER POULTRYCAFO · 950 ft
- REID FARMCAFO · 0.8 mi
- Well James Moore Well Calhoun Cnty ALNitrate · 2.4 mi
- Well Calhoun Cnty Landfill Well nr Piedmont ALNitrate · 2.5 mi
- PIEDMONT BRICKYARDSuperfund · 2.8 mi
- VALLEY REFINISHINGBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- COUNTRY MART GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- DARLENES GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- DOTS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- EC & KENDALL FARMCAFO · 4.0 mi
- KEN & AMANDA HIGHTOWER FARMCAFO · 4.1 mi
- Well MURRY PROPERTY TEST WELL Calhoun Cnty ALNitrate · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Nances Creek'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 Nances Creek.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Nances Creek
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Nances Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Nances Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Nances Creek, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Nances Creek — CAFO (10 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Nances Creek
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 Nances Creek average
Your land is one point inside Nances Creek
Everything above resolves to Nances Creek as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Nances Creek Average
Nances Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Nances Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Nances Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Nances Creek's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Nances Creek's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Nances Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Nances Creek, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Nances Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Nances Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Nances Creek average
How we know this about Nances Creek
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 Nances Creek’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 Nances Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Nances Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Nances Creek typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Nances Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Nances Creek typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Nances Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Nances Creek sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Nances Creek?
The federal record around Nances Creek is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), the nearest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Nances Creek?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Nances Creek's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Nances Creek'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 Nances Creek’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Nances Creek's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,716 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Nances Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Nances Creek's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Nances Creek, the closest CAFO record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Nances Creek's boundary and the 3,716 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Nances Creek's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Nances Creek's 3,716 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Nances Creek's 3,716 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Nances Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,716 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO record about 0.2 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 Nances Creek-wide figureread your own land →
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