Pleasant Grove, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Pleasant Grove, 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 Pleasant Grove 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 Pleasant Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Pleasant Grove — the short answer
Pleasant Grove, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 6K 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 Jefferson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Pleasant Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Pleasant Grove's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Pleasant Grove
Each reading below is measured for Pleasant Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsPleasant Grove runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson County, the closest normal to Pleasant Grove) — 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
MeasuredPleasant Grove 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 Pleasant Grove is in
Pleasant Grove sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Pleasant Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jefferson County.
What Grows in Pleasant Grove
Every plant below cleared Pleasant Grove's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Pleasant Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Pleasant Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Pleasant Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- PARK ROAD SERVICEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- CITY PLEASANT GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- PLEASANT GROVE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #4916Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- CITY CLEANERS LLCBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- WAVAHO PLEASANT GROVE QUIK MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- METRO MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PLEASANT GROVE MAGIC CITY FOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- CHEVRON USA INC-0044631Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- PESTCO EXTERMINATING CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- NEIL BONNETTS GRAND RACE CARS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- REMURIATE, LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Pleasant Grove'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 Pleasant Grove.
Total Sites
1,335
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Grove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
20 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Pleasant Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Pleasant Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Pleasant Grove — Superfund (20 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (92 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Pleasant Grove
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 Pleasant Grove average
Your land is one point inside Pleasant Grove
Everything above resolves to Pleasant Grove as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 6K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Pleasant Grove Average
Pleasant Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Pleasant Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Pleasant Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Pleasant Grove's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Pleasant Grove's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Pleasant Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Pleasant Grove, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Pleasant Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Pleasant Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Pleasant Grove average
How we know this about Pleasant Grove
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Jefferson 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Pleasant Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Pleasant Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Grove typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Pleasant Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Pleasant Grove typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Pleasant Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Pleasant Grove sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 13, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Pleasant Grove?
The federal record around Pleasant Grove is a meaningful one — 1,335 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (838), 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 Pleasant Grove?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Pleasant Grove's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Pleasant Grove'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 Pleasant Grove’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Pleasant Grove's own scale — the 6,285 acres it covers and 1,335 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Pleasant Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,335 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Pleasant Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Pleasant Grove's boundary and the 6,285 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Pleasant Grove's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Pleasant Grove has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Pleasant Grove's 6,285 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Pleasant Grove's 6,285 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Pleasant Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,285 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 Pleasant Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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