Ranburne, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Ranburne, 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 Ranburne 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 Ranburne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ranburne — the short answer
Ranburne, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Ranburne's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ranburne's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ranburne
Each reading below is measured for Ranburne itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRanburne runs about 240 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
MeasuredRanburne 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 Ranburne is in
Ranburne sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ranburne's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cleburne County.
What Grows in Ranburne
Every plant below cleared Ranburne's own zone 8a and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ranburne?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Ranburne
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ranburne. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- JUMPIN JAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- GIBBS MOTOR COMPANYBrownfields · 1300 ft
- CECIL M MEEKSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- GEORGIA KRAFT CO W C #14Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- TRICKEM COLLINS RADIOUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- RANBURNE HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- COUNTRY BOYS (HI-TECH)Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- RED COMB FARMCAFO · 1.3 mi
- RANDOLPH CO FARMER'S CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- RANBURNE CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- STATE LINE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JIMMY BAUGHNCAFO · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ranburne'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 Ranburne.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Ranburne
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ranburne
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ranburne
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ranburne, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ranburne — CAFO (27 sites) and Mining (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Ranburne
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 Ranburne average
Your land is one point inside Ranburne
Everything above resolves to Ranburne as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Ranburne Average
Ranburne Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Ranburne
- ●One soil character for all of Ranburne
- ●Frost dates read at Ranburne's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ranburne's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ranburne
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ranburne, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ranburne averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ranburne — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ranburne average
How we know this about Ranburne
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 Ranburne’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 Ranburne
When does frost risk typically end in Ranburne?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ranburne typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Ranburne?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ranburne typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ranburne?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ranburne sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Nov 1, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ranburne?
The federal record around Ranburne is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (71), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ranburne?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ranburne's scale — its 8a band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ranburne'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 Ranburne’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ranburne's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,015 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ranburne's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ranburne's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 15 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ranburne, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ranburne's boundary and the 1,015 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ranburne's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ranburne's 1,015 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cleburne County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cleburne 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 Cleburne County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ranburne's 1,015 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ranburne you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,015 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Ranburne-wide figureread your own land →
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