Valley Head, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Valley Head, 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 Head 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 Head — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Valley Head — the short answer
Valley Head, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 226 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 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- 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 Valley Head's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Valley Head's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Valley Head
Each reading below is measured for Valley Head itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredValley Head runs about 226 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
MeasuredValley Head 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 Valley Head is in
Valley Head sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Valley Head's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: DeKalb County is mostly Southwestern Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Valley Head
Every plant below cleared Valley Head's own zone 7b and its 226-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Valley Head?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 7 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Valley Head
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Valley Head. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- FRITZ STRUCTURAL STEEL INCToxics Release Inventory · 1500 ft
- SHAW INDUSTRIES GROUP, INC. PLANT 14Brownfields · 2500 ft
- GREGS FEED SUPPLYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- VALLEY HEAD HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- VALLEY HEAD HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- RUBY'S VARIETY STOREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DISCOUNT FOOD MART #515Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- TRIANGLE GAS & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- SHAW INDUSTRIES INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CONTINENTAL TELEPHONE OF THE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- THE LOOKOUT MTN OUTPOSTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- MCGEE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Valley Head'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 Head.
Total Sites
186
within ~10 miles of Valley Head
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
9 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Valley Head
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Valley Head
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Valley Head, CAFO runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Valley Head. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Valley Head
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 Head average
Your land is one point inside Valley Head
Everything above resolves to Valley Head 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 Valley Head Average
Valley Head Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Valley Head
- ●One soil character for all of Valley Head
- ●Frost dates read at Valley Head's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Valley Head's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Valley Head
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Valley Head, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Valley Head averages can't show:
We read public map data around Valley Head — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Valley Head average
How we know this about Valley Head
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 Valley Head’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 Valley Head
When does frost risk typically end in Valley Head?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Head 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 Valley Head?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Valley Head typically arrives around Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 24, so the watching starts about Oct 8 — about 226 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Valley Head?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Valley Head sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Valley Head?
The federal record around Valley Head shows 186 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (95), the nearest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 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 Valley Head?
From about Oct 8 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 7 (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 7. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Valley Head's scale — its 7b band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Valley Head'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 Head’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Valley Head's own scale — its own ~226-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,416 acres it covers and 186 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Valley Head's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Valley Head's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 7 and the ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 186 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Valley Head, the closest Toxics Release Inventory record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Valley Head's boundary and the 2,416 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Valley Head sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Valley Head's 2,416 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeKalb County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeKalb 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 DeKalb County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Valley Head's 2,416 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Valley Head you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,416 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Toxics Release Inventory 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 Valley Head-wide figureread your own land →
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