Notasulga, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Notasulga, 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 Notasulga 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 Notasulga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Notasulga — the short answer
Notasulga, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Macon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- Macon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- Macon County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 9K 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 Macon County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Notasulga's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Notasulga's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Notasulga
Each reading below is measured for Notasulga itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsNotasulga runs about 266 days between hard freezes (read from Macon County, the closest normal to Notasulga) — 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
MeasuredNotasulga sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Notasulga is in
Notasulga sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Notasulga's own centroid rather than borrowed from Macon County.
What Grows in Notasulga
Every plant below cleared Notasulga's own zone 8b and its 266-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Notasulga?
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 Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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 Notasulga
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Notasulga. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- NOTASULGA FINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- LAKE MARTIN INC DBA #95Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- BENTLEY GRASSING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WILSON OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NOTASULGA EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- NOTASULGA H SUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- NOTASULGA HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SPEEDWAY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- NOTASULGA 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- NEAL GRIGGSBYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- WALL STREET WATER AUTHORITYPFAS · 2.6 mi
- Well NAWQA FLH 25 Macon County AlNitrate · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Notasulga'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 Notasulga.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Notasulga
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Notasulga
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Notasulga
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Notasulga, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Notasulga — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Notasulga
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 Notasulga average
Your land is one point inside Notasulga
Everything above resolves to Notasulga as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 9K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Macon 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 Notasulga Average
Notasulga Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Notasulga
- ●One soil character for all of Notasulga
- ●Frost dates read at Notasulga's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Notasulga's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Notasulga
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Notasulga, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Notasulga averages can't show:
We read public map data around Notasulga — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Notasulga average
How we know this about Notasulga
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 Macon 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 Notasulga
When does frost risk typically end in Notasulga?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Notasulga typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Notasulga?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Notasulga typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 266 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Notasulga?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Notasulga sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 10, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Notasulga?
The federal record around Notasulga is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (110), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Notasulga?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Notasulga's scale — its 8b band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Notasulga'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 Notasulga’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Notasulga's own scale — the 8,938 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Notasulga's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Notasulga, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Notasulga's boundary and the 8,938 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Notasulga's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Notasulga has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Macon County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Notasulga's 8,938 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Macon County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Macon 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 Macon County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Notasulga's 8,938 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Notasulga you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,938 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Notasulga-wide figureread your own land →
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