Silverhill, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Silverhill, 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 Silverhill 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 Silverhill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Silverhill — the short answer
Silverhill, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 297 days between hard freezes, across 804 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 12
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 6
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~297
- Baldwin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 804 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 Baldwin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Silverhill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Silverhill's 297-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Silverhill
Each reading below is measured for Silverhill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSilverhill runs about 297 days between hard freezes (read from Baldwin County, the closest normal to Silverhill) — 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
MeasuredSilverhill sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Silverhill is in
Silverhill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Silverhill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Baldwin County.
What Grows in Silverhill
Every plant below cleared Silverhill's own zone 9a and its 297-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Silverhill?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 6 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
Documented around Silverhill
Spotted lanternfly documented 28 miles from Silverhill, first recorded 2021. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Silverhill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Silverhill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Well OO 1 303305087444501 Baldwin County AlabamaNitrate · 350 ft
- SILVERHILL FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- GOODWIN TRANSPORTBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- PEOPLES SUPPLY COUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- KEATING CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- DIXIE AUTO BODY REPAIRBrownfields · 1.0 mi
- SILVERHILL MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- THE ZONEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- ROBERTSDALE SALES CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HYDRATECH INDUSTRIESBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- HADLEY CONSTRUCTION SPECIALISTSBrownfields · 1.6 mi
- CLEAN TIDE CONTAINERBrownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Silverhill'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 Silverhill.
Total Sites
328
within ~10 miles of Silverhill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Silverhill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Silverhill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Silverhill, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 5 sites within ~10 miles of Silverhill. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Silverhill
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 Silverhill average
Your land is one point inside Silverhill
Everything above resolves to Silverhill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 804 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Baldwin County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Silverhill Average
Silverhill Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Silverhill
- ●One soil character for all of Silverhill
- ●Frost dates read at Silverhill's scale: Feb 12 to Dec 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Silverhill's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Silverhill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Silverhill, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Silverhill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Silverhill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Silverhill average
How we know this about Silverhill
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 Baldwin 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 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 Silverhill
When does frost risk typically end in Silverhill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Silverhill typically lands around Feb 12, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Silverhill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Silverhill typically arrives around Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 22, so the watching starts about Nov 6 — about 297 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Silverhill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Silverhill sees about 297 frost-free days — roughly Feb 12 through Dec 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 5 to Nov 22, about 262 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Silverhill?
The federal record around Silverhill is a meaningful one — 328 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (170), the nearest Nitrate 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 Silverhill?
From about Nov 6 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Silverhill's scale — its 9a band and its 297-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Silverhill'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 Silverhill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Silverhill's own scale — the 804 acres it covers and 328 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Silverhill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 328 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Silverhill, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Silverhill's boundary and the 804 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~297-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Silverhill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Silverhilllydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Silverhill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Baldwin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Silverhill's 804 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Baldwin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Baldwin 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 Baldwin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Silverhill's 804 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Silverhill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 804 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Silverhill-wide figureread your own land →
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