Perdido, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Perdido, 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 Perdido 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 Perdido — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Perdido — the short answer
Perdido, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 7K 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Perdido's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perdido's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Perdido
Each reading below is measured for Perdido itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPerdido runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Perdido) — 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
MeasuredPerdido 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 Perdido is in
Perdido sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perdido's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baldwin County.
What Grows in Perdido
Every plant below cleared Perdido's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perdido?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Perdido
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perdido. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PERDIDO WOODYARDUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- PERDIDO SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- PERDIDO GROUND WATER CONTAMINATIONSuperfund · 0.6 mi
- HICKEY'S SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CEFCO #403Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- JACKSON'S SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- JOHN F PIMPERLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- DIAMOND GASOLINE #18Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- JOHNNY HADLEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- HARVILLE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- TIGER-SUL CHEMICAL FIRESuperfund · 5.4 mi
- ALTO PRODUCTS CORPBrownfields · 5.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perdido'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 Perdido.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perdido
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perdido
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perdido, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 105 sites within ~10 miles of Perdido. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Perdido
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 Perdido average
Your land is one point inside Perdido
Everything above resolves to Perdido as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin 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 Perdido Average
Perdido Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Perdido
- ●One soil character for all of Perdido
- ●Frost dates read at Perdido's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perdido's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perdido
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perdido, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perdido averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perdido — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perdido average
How we know this about Perdido
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 Baldwin 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 Perdido
When does frost risk typically end in Perdido?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perdido typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Perdido?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perdido typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Perdido?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perdido sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Perdido?
The federal record around Perdido is a meaningful one — 134 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (105), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Perdido?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Perdido's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perdido'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 Perdido’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Perdido's own scale — the 7,128 acres it covers and 134 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perdido's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 134 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perdido, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perdido's boundary and the 7,128 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Perdido's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Perdido has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Perdido's 7,128 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Perdido's 7,128 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perdido you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,128 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Perdido-wide figureread your own land →
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