Pine Ridge, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Pine Ridge, 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 Pine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pine Ridge — the short answer
Pine Ridge, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 244 days between hard freezes, across 852 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~244
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 852 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 Pine Ridge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pine Ridge's 244-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pine Ridge
Each reading below is measured for Pine Ridge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPine Ridge runs about 244 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
MeasuredPine Ridge 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 Pine Ridge is in
Pine Ridge sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pine Ridge's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: DeKalb County is mostly Southwestern Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Pine Ridge
Every plant below cleared Pine Ridge's own zone 8a and its 244-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pine Ridge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 16 — 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 Pine Ridge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #700Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- NORRELL GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- STEVEN SKAGGS FARMSCAFO · 1.3 mi
- WALMART SUPERCENTER #691Brownfields · 1.4 mi
- MURPHY USA #5811Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CARL GREGORY FORD L/MBrownfields · 1.5 mi
- JO JOS PETRO SOUTH 59Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- DEKALB REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- DEKALB REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTERBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- JORDAN HATCHERY INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Circle K #2723668Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RAUGHTON DISCOUNT DRUGS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pine Ridge'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 Pine Ridge.
Total Sites
269
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
14 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pine Ridge, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Pine Ridge. 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.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Pine Ridge
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 Pine Ridge average
Your land is one point inside Pine Ridge
Everything above resolves to Pine Ridge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 852 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 Pine Ridge Average
Pine Ridge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Pine Ridge
- ●One soil character for all of Pine Ridge
- ●Frost dates read at Pine Ridge's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 16
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pine Ridge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pine Ridge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pine Ridge, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pine Ridge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pine Ridge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pine Ridge average
How we know this about Pine Ridge
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 Pine Ridge’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 Pine Ridge
When does frost risk typically end in Pine Ridge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Ridge typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Pine Ridge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pine Ridge typically arrives around Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 2, so the watching starts about Oct 17 — about 244 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pine Ridge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pine Ridge sees about 244 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 16, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Nov 2, about 209 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pine Ridge?
The federal record around Pine Ridge is a meaningful one — 269 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (146), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pine Ridge?
From about Oct 17 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 16 (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 16. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pine Ridge's scale — its 8a band and its 244-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pine Ridge'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 Pine Ridge’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Pine Ridge's own scale — its own ~244-day season between 28°F freezes, the 852 acres it covers and 269 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pine Ridge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Pine Ridge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 16 and the ~244-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 269 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pine Ridge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pine Ridge's boundary and the 852 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~244-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Pine Ridge sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pine Ridge's 852 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pine Ridge's 852 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pine Ridge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 852 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Pine Ridge-wide figureread your own land →
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