Twin, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Twin, 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 Twin 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 Twin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Twin — the short answer
Twin, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- 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 7b is Twin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Twin's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Twin
Each reading below is measured for Twin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTwin runs about 227 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
MeasuredTwin 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 Twin is in
Twin sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Twin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marion County.
What Grows in Twin
Every plant below cleared Twin's own zone 7b and its 227-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Twin?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Twin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Twin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BILL TESNEY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- G&H GROCERY (K&H AMACO)Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- G&H GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- HENRY HUBBERT FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- JACK MAYS GUIN BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Well Y-2 J.W. SHIRLEY Marion Cnty ALNitrate · 2.6 mi
- ALDRIDGE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- GATEWAY ADVANTAGE HOMESToxics Release Inventory · 3.1 mi
- MCCLUSKEY LUMBER & SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Well T-9 TOWN OF GUIN Marion County AlNitrate · 3.1 mi
- 3M CO - GUINToxics Release Inventory · 3.2 mi
- 3M CO - GUINBrownfields · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Twin'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 Twin.
Total Sites
130
within ~10 miles of Twin
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Twin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Twin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Twin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Twin — Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (94 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Twin
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 Twin average
Your land is one point inside Twin
Everything above resolves to Twin 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 Twin Average
Twin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Twin
- ●One soil character for all of Twin
- ●Frost dates read at Twin's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Twin's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Twin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Twin, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Twin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Twin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Twin average
How we know this about Twin
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 Twin’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 Twin
When does frost risk typically end in Twin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Twin typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Twin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Twin typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 227 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Twin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Twin sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Twin?
The federal record around Twin shows 130 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (94), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Twin?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Twin's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Twin'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 Twin’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Twin's own scale — its own ~227-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,163 acres it covers and 130 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Twin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Twin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 8 and the ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 130 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Twin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Twin's boundary and the 2,163 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Twin's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Twin's 2,163 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marion County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marion 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 Marion County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Twin's 2,163 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Twin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,163 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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 Twin-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaTwin sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides