Phil Campbell, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Phil Campbell, 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 Phil Campbell 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 Phil Campbell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Phil Campbell — the short answer
Phil Campbell, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Phil Campbell's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Phil Campbell's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Phil Campbell
Each reading below is measured for Phil Campbell itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPhil Campbell runs about 247 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredPhil Campbell 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 Phil Campbell is in
Phil Campbell sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Phil Campbell's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Phil Campbell
Every plant below cleared Phil Campbell's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Phil Campbell?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Phil Campbell
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Phil Campbell. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PHIL CAMPBELL CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- PHIL CAMPBELL SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- PHIL CAMPBELL TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- LIMMIE CUMMINGSUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- MARYS COUNTRY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- THE BOBCATS DENUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Well N-35 TOWN OF PHIL CAMPBELL Franklin Cnty AlNitrate · 0.6 mi
- PHIL CAMPBELL WATER WORKSPFAS · 0.7 mi
- MANVILLE BUILDING MATERIALS CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- HOWARDS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Well N-31 TOWN OF PHIL CAMPBELL Franklin Cnty AlNitrate · 0.7 mi
- NORTHWEST ALABAMA JR COLLEGE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Phil Campbell'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 Phil Campbell.
Total Sites
206
within ~10 miles of Phil Campbell
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Phil Campbell
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Phil Campbell
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Phil Campbell, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Phil Campbell — CAFO (40 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (26 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Phil Campbell
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 Phil Campbell average
Your land is one point inside Phil Campbell
Everything above resolves to Phil Campbell as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Phil Campbell Average
Phil Campbell Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Phil Campbell
- ●One soil character for all of Phil Campbell
- ●Frost dates read at Phil Campbell's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Phil Campbell's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Phil Campbell
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Phil Campbell, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Phil Campbell averages can't show:
We read public map data around Phil Campbell — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Phil Campbell average
How we know this about Phil Campbell
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 Phil Campbell’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 Phil Campbell
When does frost risk typically end in Phil Campbell?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Phil Campbell typically lands around Mar 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Phil Campbell?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Phil Campbell typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Phil Campbell?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Phil Campbell sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Oct 31, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Phil Campbell?
The federal record around Phil Campbell is a meaningful one — 206 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (93), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Phil Campbell?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Phil Campbell's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Phil Campbell'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 Phil Campbell’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Phil Campbell's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,758 acres it covers and 206 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Phil Campbell's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Phil Campbell's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 12 and Nov 14 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 206 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Phil Campbell, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Phil Campbell's boundary and the 2,758 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Phil Campbell's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Phil Campbell's 2,758 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Phil Campbell's 2,758 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Phil Campbell you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,758 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Phil Campbell-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaPhil Campbell sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides