Valley, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Valley, 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 Valley 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 Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Valley — the short answer
Valley, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- Chambers County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Chambers County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley
Each reading below is measured for Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsValley runs about 243 days between hard freezes (read from Chambers County, the closest normal to Valley) — 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
MeasuredValley 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 Valley is in
Valley sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chambers County.
What Grows in Valley
Every plant below cleared Valley's own zone 8b and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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 Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY MAINTENANCE SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- CO A 1ST BN (M) 167 INFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- KEITHS EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- WESTPOINT HOME LANIER CARTERToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- FAIRFAX CROSSING CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- COMMUNITY SERVICESUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- KING CHEVROLETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- WESTPOINT HOME, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
- FAIRFAX MILLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- PHILLIP W PARRISH SRUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- SOUTHERN UNION STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- CIRCLE K STORE #6697Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley'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 Valley.
Total Sites
210
within ~10 miles of Valley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
17 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valley — PFAS (6 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (17 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Valley
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 Valley average
Your land is one point inside Valley
Everything above resolves to Valley as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chambers 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 Valley Average
Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Valley's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley average
How we know this about Valley
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 Chambers 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 Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Oct 31, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley?
The federal record around Valley is a meaningful one — 210 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (150), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Valley?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley's scale — its 8b band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley'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 Valley’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Valley's own scale — the 8,250 acres it covers and 210 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 210 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley's boundary and the 8,250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Valley has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chambers County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley's 8,250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chambers County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chambers 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 Chambers County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley's 8,250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Valley-wide figureread your own land →
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