Sylvania, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Sylvania, 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 Sylvania 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 Sylvania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sylvania — the short answer
Sylvania, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- 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
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K 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 7b is Sylvania's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sylvania's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sylvania
Each reading below is measured for Sylvania itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredSylvania runs about 240 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
MeasuredSylvania sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Sylvania is in
Sylvania sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sylvania's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeKalb County.
What Grows in Sylvania
Every plant below cleared Sylvania's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sylvania?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Sylvania
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sylvania. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- SYLVANIA EXPRESSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- JURL IZELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- JOHN W MARTINUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- BUILDERS SUPPLY CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- SYLVANIA HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- WINKLES GROCERY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SYLVANIA 76Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- CRAIG FARMSCAFO · 1.0 mi
- MOUNTAIN TOP FARMCAFO · 1.9 mi
- RICKY G. THRASH FARMCAFO · 2.5 mi
- RUSTY ROOSTER FARMCAFO · 2.5 mi
- TIDE COUNTRYCAFO · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sylvania'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 Sylvania.
Total Sites
267
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
13 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sylvania
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sylvania, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 55 sites within ~10 miles of Sylvania. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Sylvania
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 Sylvania average
Your land is one point inside Sylvania
Everything above resolves to Sylvania as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 Sylvania Average
Sylvania Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Sylvania
- ●One soil character for all of Sylvania
- ●Frost dates read at Sylvania's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sylvania's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sylvania
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sylvania, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sylvania averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sylvania — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sylvania average
How we know this about Sylvania
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 Sylvania’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 Sylvania
When does frost risk typically end in Sylvania?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvania typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Sylvania?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sylvania 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 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sylvania?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sylvania sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 30, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sylvania?
The federal record around Sylvania is a meaningful one — 267 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (151), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sylvania?
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 Sylvania's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sylvania'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 Sylvania’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Sylvania's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,450 acres it covers and 267 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sylvania's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Sylvania's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 13 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 267 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sylvania, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sylvania's boundary and the 5,450 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sylvania's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sylvania's 5,450 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sylvania's 5,450 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sylvania you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,450 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Sylvania-wide figureread your own land →
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