New Site, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in New Site, 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 New Site 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 New Site — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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New Site — the short answer
New Site, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- Tallapoosa County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 Tallapoosa County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is New Site's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Site's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Site
Each reading below is measured for New Site itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Site runs about 257 days between hard freezes (read from Tallapoosa County, the closest normal to New Site) — 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
MeasuredNew Site 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 New Site is in
New Site sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Site's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tallapoosa County.
What Grows in New Site
Every plant below cleared New Site's own zone 8a and its 257-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Site?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near New Site
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Site. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- GAMBLES WARRIOR SNACK CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #174Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- DAVISTON HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- HILLABEE STOP & SHOP #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- COUNTY SHOP DISTRICT #2Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- GOLDVILLE TD-2 STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- EDGAR WATLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- HORSESHOE BEND SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- TOBY HANSON POULTRY FARMCAFO · 1.4 mi
- NEW SITE FOODLANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- D&N FARMCAFO · 2.2 mi
- INGRAM POULTRY HOUSESCAFO · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Site'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 New Site.
Total Sites
45
within ~10 miles of New Site
Risk Level
Low
Highest-severity
10 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Site
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Site
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Site, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of New Site. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in New Site
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 New Site average
Your land is one point inside New Site
Everything above resolves to New Site as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tallapoosa 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 New Site Average
New Site Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across New Site
- ●One soil character for all of New Site
- ●Frost dates read at New Site's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Site's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Site
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Site, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Site averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Site — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Site average
How we know this about New Site
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 Tallapoosa 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 New Site
When does frost risk typically end in New Site?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Site typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in New Site?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Site typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 257 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Site?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Site sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 8, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Site?
The federal record around New Site is light — 45 documented sites across the 9 federal source types we checked, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (22), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. Growing food here starts from a strong position; a soil test before new food beds settles any site-specific question.
How do I protect my plants from frost in New Site?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Site's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Site'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 New Site’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Site's own scale — the 6,314 acres it covers and 45 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Site's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 45 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Site, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Site's boundary and the 6,314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Site's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Site has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tallapoosa County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Site's 6,314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallapoosa County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallapoosa 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 Tallapoosa County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Site's 6,314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Site you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,314 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 New Site-wide figureread your own land →
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