Napier Field, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Napier Field, 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 Napier Field 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 Napier Field — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Napier Field — the short answer
Napier Field, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 291 days between hard freezes, across 163 acres of town.
- 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
- Town area
- 163 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 Napier Field's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Napier Field's 291-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Napier Field
Each reading below is measured for Napier Field itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNapier Field runs about 291 days between hard freezes (read from Dale County, the closest normal to Napier Field) — 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
MeasuredNapier Field 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 Napier Field is in
Napier Field sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Napier Field's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dale County.
What Grows in Napier Field
Every plant below cleared Napier Field'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 Napier Field?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Napier Field
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Napier Field. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TOWN OF NAPIER FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- SERVICE CENTER AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- HERTZ RENT A CAR NAPIER FIELDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- AVISUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HAYES INTERNATIONAL CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- DOTHAN JET CENTER INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- DOTHAN REGIONAL AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- FLIGHTLINE OF DOTHANUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- HAMILTON CITY HALL & POLICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- KING CHURCH FURNITURESuperfund · 1700 ft
- PEMCOBrownfields · 1900 ft
- PEMCOToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Napier Field'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 Napier Field.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Napier Field
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Napier Field
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Napier Field, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Napier Field — CAFO (27 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (360 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 Napier Field
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 Napier Field average
Your land is one point inside Napier Field
Everything above resolves to Napier Field as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 163 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dale 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 Napier Field Average
Napier Field Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Napier Field
- ●One soil character for all of Napier Field
- ●Frost dates read at Napier Field's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Napier Field's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Napier Field
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Napier Field, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Napier Field averages can't show:
We read public map data around Napier Field — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Napier Field average
How we know this about Napier Field
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 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 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 Napier Field
When does frost risk typically end in Napier Field?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Napier Field 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 Napier Field?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Napier Field 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 Napier Field?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Napier Field 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 Napier Field?
The federal record around Napier Field is a meaningful one — 582 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (360), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Napier Field?
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 Napier Field's scale — its 9a band and its 291-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Napier Field'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 Napier Field’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Napier Field's own scale — the 163 acres it covers and 582 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Napier Field's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 582 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Napier Field, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Napier Field's boundary and the 163 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 Napier Field's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Napier Field 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 Napier Field's 163 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 Napier Field's 163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Napier Field you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Napier Field-wide figureread your own land →
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