Perdido Beach, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Perdido Beach, 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 Beach 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 Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Perdido Beach — the short answer
Perdido Beach, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 758 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- 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
- 758 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 9a is Perdido Beach's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Perdido Beach'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 Beach
Each reading below is measured for Perdido Beach itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPerdido Beach runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Perdido Beach) — 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 Beach sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Beach is in
Perdido Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Perdido Beach's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Baldwin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Perdido Beach
Every plant below cleared Perdido Beach's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Perdido Beach?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
Documented around Perdido Beach
Spotted lanternfly documented 8 miles from Perdido Beach, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Perdido Beach
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Perdido Beach. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BIG 10 TIRE STORES, INC. STORE #91Brownfields · 1.9 mi
- CITY OF DAPHNE MECHANICAL DEPARTMENTBrownfields · 2.1 mi
- TERRY & PAT'S AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER #934Brownfields · 2.7 mi
- PIRATES COVE MARINAUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- ALABAMA AUTO SERVICE CENTERS INCBrownfields · 3.0 mi
- BEAR POINT MARINA & RESORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- UNKNOWNUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- LILLIAN CENTRAL OFFICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- W.KEE,INTRACOASTAL WTRWY.Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- UNEEDA SIGNBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- KIEFER FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Perdido Beach'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 Beach.
Total Sites
195
within ~10 miles of Perdido Beach
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Perdido Beach
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Perdido Beach
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Perdido Beach, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Perdido Beach — PFAS (4 sites) and Nitrate (58 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Perdido Beach
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 Beach average
Your land is one point inside Perdido Beach
Everything above resolves to Perdido Beach as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 758 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 Beach Average
Perdido Beach Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Perdido Beach
- ●One soil character for all of Perdido Beach
- ●Frost dates read at Perdido Beach's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Perdido Beach's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Perdido Beach
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Perdido Beach, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Perdido Beach averages can't show:
We read public map data around Perdido Beach — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Perdido Beach average
How we know this about Perdido Beach
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 Beach
When does frost risk typically end in Perdido Beach?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Perdido Beach 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 Beach?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Perdido Beach 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 Beach?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Perdido Beach 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 Beach?
The federal record around Perdido Beach is a meaningful one — 195 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (90), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.9 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 Beach?
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 Beach's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Perdido Beach'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 Beach’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Perdido Beach's own scale — the 758 acres it covers and 195 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Perdido Beach's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 195 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Perdido Beach, the closest Brownfields record about 1.9 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Perdido Beach's boundary and the 758 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Perdido Beach sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Perdido Beachlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Perdido Beach 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 Beach's 758 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 Beach's 758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Perdido Beach you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 758 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.9 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 Beach-wide figureread your own land →
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