Union Springs, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Union Springs, 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 Springs 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 Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Union Springs — the short answer
Union Springs, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 259 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- Bullock County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Bullock County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~259
- Bullock County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. No 30-year normal resolves at this town’s own centroid, so the hard-freeze dates are Bullock County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Union Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Union Springs's 259-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Union Springs
Each reading below is measured for Union Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsUnion Springs runs about 259 days between hard freezes (read from Bullock County, the closest normal to Union Springs) — 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
MeasuredUnion Springs sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Springs is in
Union Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Union Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bullock County.
What Grows in Union Springs
Every plant below cleared Union Springs's own zone 8b and its 259-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Union Springs?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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 Union Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Union Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY SHEDUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- CITY UTILITY DEPARTMENTUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- MCGOWAN'S SER STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- MCKENZIE MARKETS #4Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- FIRST BAPTIST CHURCHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- UNION SPRINGS 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- DIXIE ELECTRIC COOPERATIVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- SVC BTRY 3RD BN 117TH FAUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BONNIE PLANT FARMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- UNION CAMP CORP TREE NURSERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- W A SHAWUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Well L 3 320835085430601 Bullock County AlNitrate · 1800 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Union Springs'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 Springs.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Union Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Union Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Union Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Union Springs, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 48 sites within ~10 miles of Union Springs. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Union Springs
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 Springs average
Your land is one point inside Union Springs
Everything above resolves to Union Springs as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bullock County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’s own centroid. 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 city 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 Springs Average
Union Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Union Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Union Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Union Springs's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Union Springs's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Union Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Union Springs, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Union Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Union Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Union Springs average
How we know this about Union Springs
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bullock County’s record, because none resolves here; 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Union Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Union Springs typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Union Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Union Springs typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 259 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Union Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Union Springs sees about 259 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 7, about 224 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Union Springs?
The federal record around Union Springs shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (48), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Union Springs?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Union Springs's scale — its 8b band and its 259-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Union Springs'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 Springs’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Union Springs's own scale — the 4,243 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Union Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Union Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Union Springs's boundary and the 4,243 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~259-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Union Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Union Springs has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bullock County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Union Springs's 4,243 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bullock County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bullock 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 Bullock County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Union Springs's 4,243 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Union Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,243 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Springs-wide figureread your own land →
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