Susan Moore, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Susan Moore, 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 Susan Moore 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 Susan Moore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Susan Moore — the short answer
Susan Moore, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Susan Moore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Susan Moore's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Susan Moore
Each reading below is measured for Susan Moore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSusan Moore runs about 262 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredSusan Moore 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 Susan Moore is in
Susan Moore sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Susan Moore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Blount County.
What Grows in Susan Moore
Every plant below cleared Susan Moore's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Susan Moore?
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 10; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — 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 Susan Moore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Susan Moore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SUSAN MOORE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- TWO PONDS FARMCAFO · 0.9 mi
- SUSAN MOORE HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- GLASS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- SMITH FARMSCAFO · 1.6 mi
- MEAD WOODLANDSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- SLAP HAPPY FARMCAFO · 2.3 mi
- LARUE FARMCAFO · 3.0 mi
- SNEAD EQUIPMENTBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- MAZE FARM INC.CAFO · 3.3 mi
- FORT BRAGG FARMCAFO · 3.3 mi
- SNEAD SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Susan Moore'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 Susan Moore.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Susan Moore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Susan Moore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Susan Moore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Susan Moore, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Susan Moore — CAFO (58 sites) and PFAS (4 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.
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 Susan Moore
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 Susan Moore average
Your land is one point inside Susan Moore
Everything above resolves to Susan Moore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 Susan Moore Average
Susan Moore Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Susan Moore
- ●One soil character for all of Susan Moore
- ●Frost dates read at Susan Moore's scale: Mar 10 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Susan Moore's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Susan Moore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Susan Moore, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Susan Moore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Susan Moore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Susan Moore average
How we know this about Susan Moore
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 Susan Moore’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 Susan Moore
When does frost risk typically end in Susan Moore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Susan Moore typically lands around Mar 10, 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 31.
When is the first frost in Susan Moore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Susan Moore typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Susan Moore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Susan Moore sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 10 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 31 to Nov 13, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Susan Moore?
The federal record around Susan Moore is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Susan Moore?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Susan Moore's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Susan Moore'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 Susan Moore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Susan Moore's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,604 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Susan Moore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Susan Moore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 10 and Nov 27 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Susan Moore, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Susan Moore's boundary and the 3,604 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Susan Moore's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Susan Moore's 3,604 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Blount County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Blount 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 Blount County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Susan Moore's 3,604 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Susan Moore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,604 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Susan Moore-wide figureread your own land →
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