Saraland, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Saraland, 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 Saraland 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 Saraland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Saraland — the short answer
Saraland, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 22K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 9
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Mobile County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 22K 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 Mobile County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Saraland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Saraland's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Saraland
Each reading below is measured for Saraland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSaraland runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Mobile County, the closest normal to Saraland) — 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
MeasuredSaraland 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 Saraland is in
Saraland sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Saraland's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Mobile County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Saraland
Every plant below cleared Saraland's own zone 8b and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Saraland?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Saraland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Saraland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TURNERVILLE WATER & FIRE PRO DISTRICTPFAS · 25 ft
- KMC KEITH MOSLEY CONSTRUCTIONBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CIRCLE K #8251Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Circle K #2721580Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- COUNTRY CORNER SARALANDUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- BEBO'S MARKET #7Underground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- OTIS EARL LEE-LEE CONSTRUCTION COUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- CHOCTAW CARRIERS INCBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- MINUTE STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- MITTERNIGHT BOILER WORKSToxics Release Inventory · 2.9 mi
- SHELTON BEACH AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2.9 mi
- SHELTON BEACH RD AUTO PARTSBrownfields · 3.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Saraland'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 Saraland.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Saraland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Saraland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Saraland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Saraland — Superfund (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (47 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Saraland
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 Saraland average
Your land is one point inside Saraland
Everything above resolves to Saraland as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 22K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Mobile 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 Saraland Average
Saraland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Saraland
- ●One soil character for all of Saraland
- ●Frost dates read at Saraland's scale: Feb 9 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Saraland's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Saraland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Saraland, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Saraland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Saraland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Saraland average
How we know this about Saraland
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 Mobile 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 Saraland
When does frost risk typically end in Saraland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Saraland typically lands around Feb 9, 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 2.
When is the first frost in Saraland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Saraland typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Saraland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Saraland sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 9 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 2 to Nov 19, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Saraland?
The federal record around Saraland runs heavier than most — 584 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (257), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Saraland?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Saraland's scale — its 8b band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Saraland'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 Saraland’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Saraland's own scale — the 21,878 acres it covers and 584 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Saraland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 584 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Saraland, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Saraland's boundary and the 21,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Saraland sits in the Southern Coastal Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Saraland has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Mobile County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Saraland's 21,878 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mobile County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mobile 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 Mobile County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Saraland's 21,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Saraland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,878 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Saraland-wide figureread your own land →
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