Alligator, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Alligator, 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 Alligator 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 Alligator — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Alligator — the short answer
Alligator, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 630 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 22
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 1
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Bolivar County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 630 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 Bolivar County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Alligator's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Alligator's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Alligator
Each reading below is measured for Alligator itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsAlligator runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Bolivar County, the closest normal to Alligator) — 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
MeasuredAlligator 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 Alligator is in
Alligator sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Alligator's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bolivar County.
What Grows in Alligator
Every plant below cleared Alligator's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Alligator?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 25; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 1 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Alligator
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Alligator. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 011B0025 BOLIVARNitrate · 950 ft
- Hogan Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Jenkins Service Station & GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- 011B0112 BOLIVARNitrate · 3.6 mi
- James R JohnsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- Mrs C GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.2 mi
- Great River Road Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 027G0002 COAHOMANitrate · 5.3 mi
- Sportsman GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Rico's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 011B0005 BOLIVARNitrate · 5.4 mi
- TOWN OF DUNCANPFAS · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Alligator'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 Alligator.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Alligator
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Alligator
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Alligator
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Alligator, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 16 sites within ~10 miles of Alligator. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Alligator
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 Alligator average
Your land is one point inside Alligator
Everything above resolves to Alligator as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 630 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Bolivar 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 Alligator Average
Alligator Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Alligator
- ●One soil character for all of Alligator
- ●Frost dates read at Alligator's scale: Feb 22 to Dec 1
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Alligator's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Alligator
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Alligator, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Alligator averages can't show:
We read public map data around Alligator — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Alligator average
How we know this about Alligator
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 Bolivar 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 Alligator
When does frost risk typically end in Alligator?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Alligator typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 15.
When is the first frost in Alligator?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Alligator typically arrives around Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 17, so the watching starts about Nov 1 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Alligator?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Alligator sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 22 through Dec 1, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 15 to Nov 17, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Alligator?
The federal record around Alligator shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (30), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Alligator?
From about Nov 1 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 Dec 1 (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 Dec 1. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Alligator's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Alligator'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 Alligator’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Alligator's own scale — the 630 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Alligator's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Alligator, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Alligator's boundary and the 630 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 Alligator's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Alligator has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Bolivar County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Alligator's 630 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bolivar County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bolivar County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Bolivar County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Alligator's 630 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Alligator you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 630 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 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 Alligator-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Growing region
Nearby growing guides