New Albany, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in New Albany, 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 New Albany 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 New Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
New Albany — the short answer
New Albany, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 253 days between hard freezes, across 12K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~253
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 12K 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 New Albany's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against New Albany's 253-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in New Albany
Each reading below is measured for New Albany itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredNew Albany runs about 253 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
MeasuredNew Albany 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 New Albany is in
New Albany sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at New Albany's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in New Albany
Every plant below cleared New Albany's own zone 8a and its 253-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in New Albany?
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 11; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 11 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near New Albany
Closest first, within ~10 miles of New Albany. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Wastewater Treatment PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Joe MedlinUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Endevco IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Reed's Market PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- JNS BIOFUELS FIRESuperfund · 1800 ft
- Chevron 78 WestUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Jr Food #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Union County Co OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- LOWE'S OF NEW ALBANY, MS #3041Brownfields · 2400 ft
- Hill's International IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Union County Cooperative (AAL)Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Hubert Lynn FoleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from New Albany'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 New Albany.
Total Sites
183
within ~10 miles of New Albany
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of New Albany
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of New Albany
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around New Albany, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 114 sites within ~10 miles of New Albany. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in New Albany
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 New Albany average
Your land is one point inside New Albany
Everything above resolves to New Albany as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 12K 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 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 New Albany Average
New Albany Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across New Albany
- ●One soil character for all of New Albany
- ●Frost dates read at New Albany's scale: Mar 11 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not New Albany's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in New Albany
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in New Albany, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that New Albany averages can't show:
We read public map data around New Albany — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the New Albany average
How we know this about New Albany
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 New Albany’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 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 New Albany
When does frost risk typically end in New Albany?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in New Albany typically lands around Mar 11, 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 1.
When is the first frost in New Albany?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in New Albany typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 253 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in New Albany?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, New Albany sees about 253 frost-free days — roughly Mar 11 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 1 to Nov 5, about 218 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in New Albany?
The federal record around New Albany is a meaningful one — 183 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (114), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 New Albany?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at New Albany's scale — its 8a band and its 253-day season. Your yard writes its own version of New Albany'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 New Albany’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at New Albany's own scale — its own ~253-day season between 28°F freezes, the 11,669 acres it covers and 183 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- New Albany's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- New Albany's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 11 and Nov 19 and the ~253-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 183 documented contamination sites on the federal record near New Albany, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- New Albany's boundary and the 11,669 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~253-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at New Albany's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so New Albany's 11,669 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among New Albany's 11,669 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of New Albany you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 11,669 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 New Albany-wide figureread your own land →