Vernon, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Vernon, 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 Vernon 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 Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Vernon — the short answer
Vernon, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 235 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~235
- Lamar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town 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 Lamar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Vernon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Vernon's 235-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Vernon
Each reading below is measured for Vernon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVernon runs about 235 days between hard freezes (read from Lamar County, the closest normal to Vernon) — 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
MeasuredVernon 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 Vernon is in
Vernon sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Vernon's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lamar County.
What Grows in Vernon
Every plant below cleared Vernon's own zone 8a and its 235-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Vernon?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Vernon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Vernon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- KEYSTONE RUSTPROOFING INCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- STANFORD MOTORS INCBrownfields · 1600 ft
- DISTRICT 1 COUNTY BARNUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- S W PRICE GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- MIKE RONEYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- STATE OF ALABAMA FORESTRY COMMISSIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- BURCHETT GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- TODDS SMOKEHOUSEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- VERNON WELL 3 (NAWQA FLH-9-1)Nitrate · 1700 ft
- WESTSIDE TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- VICK OIL COUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Well K-6 TOWN OF VERNON Lamar County AlNitrate · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Vernon'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 Vernon.
Total Sites
85
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Vernon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Vernon, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 22 sites within ~10 miles of Vernon. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Vernon
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 Vernon average
Your land is one point inside Vernon
Everything above resolves to Vernon as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lamar County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this town’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 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 Vernon Average
Vernon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Vernon
- ●One soil character for all of Vernon
- ●Frost dates read at Vernon's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Vernon's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Vernon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Vernon, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Vernon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Vernon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Vernon average
How we know this about Vernon
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 Lamar 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 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 Vernon
When does frost risk typically end in Vernon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Vernon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Vernon typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 235 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Vernon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Vernon sees about 235 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 29, about 200 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Vernon?
The federal record around Vernon shows 85 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (47), the nearest Brownfields 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 Vernon?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Vernon's scale — its 8a band and its 235-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Vernon'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 Vernon’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Vernon's own scale — the 3,772 acres it covers and 85 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Vernon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 85 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Vernon, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Vernon's boundary and the 3,772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~235-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Vernon's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Vernon has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lamar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Vernon's 3,772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lamar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lamar 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 Lamar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Vernon's 3,772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Vernon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Vernon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Alabama
Wider growing context
What grows across AlabamaVernon sits outside our named growing regions, so Alabama as a whole is its closest context here.