Union Grove, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Union Grove, 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 Union Grove 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 Union Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union Grove — the short answer
Union Grove, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 356 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 356 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 Union Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union Grove's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union Grove
Each reading below is measured for Union Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredUnion Grove runs about 260 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
MeasuredUnion Grove 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 Union Grove is in
Union Grove sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Union Grove
Every plant below cleared Union Grove's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union Grove?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Union Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- O.L. CLICK GEN. MERCHANDISEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNION GROVE PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- BRINDLEE MT. TELEPHONE UNION GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- BOARD OF ED UNION GROVE SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- MARSHALL CO BOARD OF ED UNION GROVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- WARREN FARMS, LLPCAFO · 1.6 mi
- G & H FARMSCAFO · 1.7 mi
- COOLEY GROCERY (CLOSED)Underground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- SILVER MAPLE FARM LLCCAFO · 3.1 mi
- HONDA ROSA FARMSCAFO · 3.2 mi
- DISTRICT 1 SHOP ARABUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- ADAM GOSSCAFO · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union Grove'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 Union Grove.
Total Sites
232
within ~10 miles of Union Grove
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Union Grove — CAFO (24 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Union Grove
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 Union Grove average
Your land is one point inside Union Grove
Everything above resolves to Union Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 356 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 Union Grove Average
Union Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Union Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Union Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Union Grove's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union Grove's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union Grove, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Grove average
How we know this about Union Grove
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 Union Grove’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 Union Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Union Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union Grove typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in Union Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union Grove typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union Grove sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 12, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union Grove?
The federal record around Union Grove is a meaningful one — 232 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (157), 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 Union Grove?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union Grove's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union Grove'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 Union Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Union Grove's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 356 acres it covers and 232 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Union Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 26 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 232 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union Grove, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union Grove's boundary and the 356 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union Grove's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union Grove's 356 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union Grove's 356 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 356 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 Union Grove-wide figureread your own land →
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