South Vinemont, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 South Vinemont, 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 South Vinemont 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 South Vinemont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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South Vinemont — the short answer
South Vinemont, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 580 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 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 580 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 South Vinemont's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against South Vinemont's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in South Vinemont
Each reading below is measured for South Vinemont itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSouth Vinemont runs about 238 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
MeasuredSouth Vinemont 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 South Vinemont is in
South Vinemont sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at South Vinemont's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cullman County.
What Grows in South Vinemont
Every plant below cleared South Vinemont's own zone 8a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in South Vinemont?
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 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near South Vinemont
Closest first, within ~10 miles of South Vinemont. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CULLMAN FARMERS CO-OPUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- LITTRELL BROS LUMBER COBrownfields · 2400 ft
- GLENDA HOLMES PROPERTYCAFO · 2500 ft
- V&W PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- AL0019 JET PEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- WELCHS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- PAK-A-SAKUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- BRIANS GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- STEELE ODEN GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BFI OF ALABAMA VINEMONTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CSX TRANSPORTATION, INC.Brownfields · 1.1 mi
- ITT INDUSTRIES PROCASTBrownfields · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from South Vinemont'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 South Vinemont.
Total Sites
353
within ~10 miles of South Vinemont
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of South Vinemont
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of South Vinemont
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around South Vinemont, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of South Vinemont — CAFO (32 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (28 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 South Vinemont
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 South Vinemont average
Your land is one point inside South Vinemont
Everything above resolves to South Vinemont as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 580 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 South Vinemont Average
South Vinemont Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across South Vinemont
- ●One soil character for all of South Vinemont
- ●Frost dates read at South Vinemont's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not South Vinemont's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in South Vinemont
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in South Vinemont, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that South Vinemont averages can't show:
We read public map data around South Vinemont — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the South Vinemont average
How we know this about South Vinemont
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 South Vinemont’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 South Vinemont
When does frost risk typically end in South Vinemont?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in South Vinemont 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 South Vinemont?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in South Vinemont 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 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in South Vinemont?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, South Vinemont sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 30, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in South Vinemont?
The federal record around South Vinemont is a meaningful one — 353 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (224), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 South Vinemont?
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 South Vinemont's scale — its 8a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of South Vinemont'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 South Vinemont’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at South Vinemont's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 580 acres it covers and 353 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- South Vinemont's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- South Vinemont's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 13 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 353 documented contamination sites on the federal record near South Vinemont, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- South Vinemont's boundary and the 580 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at South Vinemont's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so South Vinemont's 580 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cullman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cullman 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 Cullman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among South Vinemont's 580 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of South Vinemont you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 580 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 South Vinemont-wide figureread your own land →
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