Valley Grande, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Valley Grande, 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 Grande 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 Grande — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Grande — the short answer
Valley Grande, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 20
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 29
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Dallas County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Dallas County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Valley Grande's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Grande's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Grande
Each reading below is measured for Valley Grande itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsValley Grande runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Dallas County, the closest normal to Valley Grande) — 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
MeasuredValley Grande 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 Grande is in
Valley Grande sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Grande's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dallas County.
What Grows in Valley Grande
Every plant below cleared Valley Grande's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Grande?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 29 — 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 Valley Grande
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Grande. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAZY ACRES MARKETUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- WEST SIDE MINI MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- VALLEY GRANDE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- STATE OF ALABAMA FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- SUNNY FOOD MART MARATHONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- CAPTAIN'S CORNER EXXONUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Well J 24 Selma PWS 1988-89 Dallas Cnty AlNitrate · 2.9 mi
- SUMMERFIELD GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- GEORGE C WALLACE STATE COMMUNITY COLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- VALLEY GRANDE ELEMENTARY SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- VALLEY CREEK JUNCTION GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- MAC ADAMSUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Grande'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 Grande.
Total Sites
209
within ~10 miles of Valley Grande
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Grande
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Grande
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Grande, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Valley Grande — Superfund (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (133 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Valley Grande
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 Grande average
Your land is one point inside Valley Grande
Everything above resolves to Valley Grande as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 21K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Dallas 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 Grande Average
Valley Grande Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Valley Grande
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Grande
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Grande's scale: Feb 20 to Nov 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Grande's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Grande
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Grande, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Grande averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Grande — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Grande average
How we know this about Valley Grande
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 Dallas 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 Grande
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Grande?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Grande typically lands around Feb 20, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Valley Grande?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Grande typically arrives around Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 15, so the watching starts about Oct 30 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Grande?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Grande sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 20 through Nov 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 13 to Nov 15, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Grande?
The federal record around Valley Grande is a meaningful one — 209 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Grande?
From about Oct 30 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 29 (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 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley Grande's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Grande'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 Grande’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Valley Grande's own scale — the 21,443 acres it covers and 209 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Grande's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 209 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Grande, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Grande's boundary and the 21,443 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Valley Grande's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Valley Grande has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Dallas County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Grande's 21,443 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dallas County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dallas 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 Dallas County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Grande's 21,443 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Grande you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 21,443 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.4 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 Grande-wide figureread your own land →
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