Russellville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Russellville, 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 Russellville 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 Russellville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Russellville — the short answer
Russellville, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- 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 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 7b is Russellville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Russellville's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Russellville
Each reading below is measured for Russellville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredRussellville runs about 242 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
MeasuredRussellville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Russellville is in
Russellville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Russellville's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Franklin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Russellville
Every plant below cleared Russellville's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Russellville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Russellville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Russellville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- ALVIE THORN ONE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- JOYCE GOINS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- PATTON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- W H OLIVER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- STATE OF ALA DEPT OF PUBLIC SAFETYUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DOWNTOWN CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- CITY OF RUSSELLVILLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- FRANKLIN CO BOARD OF EDUCATION BUS SHOPBrownfields · 750 ft
- FRANKLIN CO SCHOOL BUS SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- GRACE MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- ANNIES OCCASIONSUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- COCA COLA BOTTLING COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Russellville'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 Russellville.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Russellville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Russellville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Russellville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Russellville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Russellville — CAFO (24 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (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.
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 Russellville
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 Russellville average
Your land is one point inside Russellville
Everything above resolves to Russellville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 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 Russellville Average
Russellville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Russellville
- ●One soil character for all of Russellville
- ●Frost dates read at Russellville's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Russellville's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Russellville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Russellville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Russellville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Russellville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Russellville average
How we know this about Russellville
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 Russellville’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 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 Russellville
When does frost risk typically end in Russellville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Russellville 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 Russellville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Russellville 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 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Russellville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Russellville sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 31, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Russellville?
The federal record around Russellville is a meaningful one — 166 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (92), 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 Russellville?
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 Russellville's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Russellville'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 Russellville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Russellville's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 8,582 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Russellville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Russellville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 14 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Russellville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Russellville's boundary and the 8,582 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Russellville sits in the Interior Plateau — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Russellville's 8,582 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 Russellville's 8,582 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Russellville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,582 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 Russellville-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaRussellville sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides