Paint Rock, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Paint Rock, 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 Paint Rock 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 Paint Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paint Rock — the short answer
Paint Rock, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 261 days between hard freezes, across 282 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~261
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 282 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 Paint Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paint Rock's 261-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paint Rock
Each reading below is measured for Paint Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaint Rock runs about 261 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPaint Rock 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 Paint Rock is in
Paint Rock sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paint Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Paint Rock
Every plant below cleared Paint Rock's own zone 8a and its 261-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paint Rock?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (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. 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 Paint Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paint Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ATCHLEY SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- ANTHONY GLENN BROGDONUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- COOLEY CHEMICAL SPILLSuperfund · 1.5 mi
- VICTORY FUELS (SUPER STOP #75)Underground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- FLINT RIVER BRIDGE DRUMSuperfund · 2.7 mi
- HEREFORD & SONS FARMCAFO · 2.9 mi
- PAINT ROCK GAS & OILUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- DOLLAR GENERAL 1681Underground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- VULCAN LAKEWOOD 72 QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- CLYDE'S US GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- HOMELAND ENVIRONMENTAL SOLUTIONS LLCBrownfields · 3.3 mi
- COURTESY USED CARS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paint Rock'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 Paint Rock.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Paint Rock
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paint Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paint Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paint Rock, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Paint Rock — PFAS (4 sites) and Superfund (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Paint Rock
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 Paint Rock average
Your land is one point inside Paint Rock
Everything above resolves to Paint Rock as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 282 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 Paint Rock Average
Paint Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Paint Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Paint Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Paint Rock's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paint Rock's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paint Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paint Rock, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paint Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paint Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paint Rock average
How we know this about Paint Rock
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 Paint Rock’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 Paint Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Paint Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paint Rock typically lands around Mar 8, 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 29.
When is the first frost in Paint Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paint Rock 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 261 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paint Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paint Rock sees about 261 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 10, about 226 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paint Rock?
The federal record around Paint Rock is a meaningful one — 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Paint Rock?
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 Paint Rock's scale — its 8a band and its 261-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paint Rock'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 Paint Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paint Rock's own scale — its own ~261-day season between 28°F freezes, the 282 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paint Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paint Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 24 and the ~261-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paint Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paint Rock's boundary and the 282 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~261-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paint Rock's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paint Rock's 282 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paint Rock's 282 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paint Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 282 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Paint Rock-wide figureread your own land →
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