Wadley, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
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 Wadley, 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 Wadley 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 Wadley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wadley — the short answer
Wadley, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 931 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 931 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 8a is Wadley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wadley's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wadley
Each reading below is measured for Wadley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWadley runs about 248 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
MeasuredWadley 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 Wadley is in
Wadley sits in the Piedmont — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wadley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Randolph County.
What Grows in Wadley
Every plant below cleared Wadley's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wadley?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 18 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Wadley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wadley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- W G GAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- CONTINENTAL TELEPHONE OF THE SOUTHUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- STEPHENS' STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WADLEY HOLDINGS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1400 ft
- WADLEY HOLDINGS LLCBrownfields · 1400 ft
- WADLEY HOLDING PRIMER SPILLSuperfund · 1400 ft
- SOUTHERN UNION STATE COMMUNITY COLLEGEBrownfields · 1500 ft
- PLANTATION PATTERNSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CALDWELL BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- SOUTHERN UNION STATE JUNIOR COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- WADLEY FOOD MARTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- ALBRIGHTS AC-124Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wadley'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 Wadley.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Wadley
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wadley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wadley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wadley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Wadley — Mining (42 sites) and CAFO (6 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check your specific parcel in Wadley
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 Wadley average
Your land is one point inside Wadley
Everything above resolves to Wadley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 931 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 Wadley Average
Wadley Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Wadley
- ●One soil character for all of Wadley
- ●Frost dates read at Wadley's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 18
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wadley's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wadley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wadley, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wadley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wadley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wadley average
How we know this about Wadley
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 Wadley’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 Wadley
When does frost risk typically end in Wadley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wadley typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Wadley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wadley typically arrives around Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 4, so the watching starts about Oct 19 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wadley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wadley sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 18, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 4, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wadley?
The federal record around Wadley runs heavier than most — 75 documented sites, mostly Mining entries (42), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Wadley?
From about Oct 19 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 18 (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 18. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wadley's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wadley'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 Wadley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Wadley's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 931 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wadley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Wadley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 18 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wadley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wadley's boundary and the 931 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wadley's own centroid, the PiedmontUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wadley's 931 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Randolph County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Randolph 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 Randolph County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wadley's 931 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wadley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 931 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Wadley-wide figureread your own land →
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