New Union, 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 New Union, 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 Union 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 Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Union — the short answer
New Union, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 255 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Etowah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Etowah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~255
- Etowah County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 8K 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 Etowah County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is New Union's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Union's 255-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Union
Each reading below is measured for New Union itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNew Union runs about 255 days between hard freezes (read from Etowah County, the closest normal to New Union) — 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 Union 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 Union is in
New Union sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Union's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Etowah County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in New Union
Every plant below cleared New Union's own zone 8a and its 255-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Union?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 New Union
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Union. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SAM'S POULTRYCAFO · 550 ft
- LINDA MASON FARMCAFO · 1.6 mi
- PARKER FARM / 4P FARMCAFO · 2.0 mi
- MANCUSO MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MANCUSO PURE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- SEDONNA FARMSCAFO · 2.2 mi
- WADE HOLLANDCAFO · 2.2 mi
- LIL BURTONS FOOD STORE EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS FARMCAFO · 2.8 mi
- CLEAR CREEK FARMSCAFO · 2.9 mi
- MURPHYS POULTRY FARMCAFO · 2.9 mi
- Well H 5 340543087151701 Etowah County AlNitrate · 2.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Union'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 Union.
Total Sites
324
within ~10 miles of New Union
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Union
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Union
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Union, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of New Union — CAFO (56 sites) and PFAS (5 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 New Union
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 Union average
Your land is one point inside New Union
Everything above resolves to New Union as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Etowah 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 Union Average
New Union Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across New Union
- ●One soil character for all of New Union
- ●Frost dates read at New Union's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Union's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Union
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Union, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Union averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Union — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Union average
How we know this about New Union
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 Etowah 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 Union
When does frost risk typically end in New Union?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Union typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in New Union?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Union typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 255 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Union?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Union sees about 255 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 9, about 220 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Union?
The federal record around New Union is a meaningful one — 324 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest CAFO 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 New Union?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Union's scale — its 8a band and its 255-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Union'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 Union’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at New Union's own scale — the 7,881 acres it covers and 324 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Union's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 324 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Union, the closest CAFO record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Union's boundary and the 7,881 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~255-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- New Union sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — New Union has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Etowah County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Union's 7,881 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Etowah County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Etowah 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 Etowah County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Union's 7,881 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Union you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,881 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest CAFO 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 New Union-wide figureread your own land →
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