Somerville, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Somerville, 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 Somerville 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 Somerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Somerville — the short answer
Somerville, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Somerville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Somerville's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Somerville
Each reading below is measured for Somerville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSomerville runs about 243 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
MeasuredSomerville 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 Somerville is in
Somerville sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Somerville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Morgan County.
What Grows in Somerville
Every plant below cleared Somerville's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Somerville?
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 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — 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 Somerville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Somerville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- J R RANSOM GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- TUCKERS CORNERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- SOMERVILLE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- WINTON COMMUNITY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- STROUD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CMC FEED SOMERVILLE HQFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- RJ'S STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- AL0066 JET PEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- GERBER COLLISION & GLASS - SOMERVILLE (AL) CC115015Brownfields · 2.5 mi
- BELLSOUTH SOMERVILLE TELECOM 11738Underground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- SONOCO PRODUCT SOMERVILLE LUMBERUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- DAYS 4 WAY PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Somerville'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 Somerville.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Somerville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Somerville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Somerville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Somerville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Somerville — CAFO (10 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Somerville
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 Somerville average
Your land is one point inside Somerville
Everything above resolves to Somerville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Somerville Average
Somerville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Somerville
- ●One soil character for all of Somerville
- ●Frost dates read at Somerville's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Somerville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Somerville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Somerville, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Somerville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Somerville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Somerville average
How we know this about Somerville
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 Somerville’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 Somerville
When does frost risk typically end in Somerville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Somerville typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Somerville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Somerville typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Somerville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Somerville sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 30, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Somerville?
The federal record around Somerville is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (129), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Somerville?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Somerville's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Somerville'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 Somerville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Somerville's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,223 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Somerville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Somerville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 13 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Somerville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Somerville's boundary and the 2,223 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Somerville's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Somerville's 2,223 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Morgan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Morgan 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 Morgan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Somerville's 2,223 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Somerville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,223 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Somerville-wide figureread your own land →
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