Anniston, Missouri, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Anniston, 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 Anniston 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 Anniston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Anniston — the short answer
Anniston, Missouri: USDA zone 7b, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 250 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 250 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 Anniston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Anniston's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Anniston
Each reading below is measured for Anniston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredAnniston runs about 242 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
MeasuredAnniston 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 Anniston is in
Anniston sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Anniston's own centroid rather than borrowed from Mississippi County.
What Grows in Anniston
Every plant below cleared Anniston's own zone 7b and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Missouri profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Anniston?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Anniston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Anniston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- T26N R16E 09CAA1Nitrate · 2100 ft
- FRENCH IMPLEMENT CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- DELTA GROWERSUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- MISSISSIPPI COUNTY AIRPORTUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- BARNHILL FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- STEWART FARMUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- T25N R17E 07CCD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- T26N R16E 20DDD1Nitrate · 3.7 mi
- WALKERS AUTO REPAIRBrownfields · 4.0 mi
- T25N R17E 06BDDNitrate · 4.1 mi
- EAST PRAIRIE MAINT LOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- COFFER GARAGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Anniston'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 Anniston.
Total Sites
110
within ~10 miles of Anniston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Anniston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Anniston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Anniston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 52 sites within ~10 miles of Anniston. 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 Anniston
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 Anniston average
Your land is one point inside Anniston
Everything above resolves to Anniston as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 250 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 Anniston Average
Anniston Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Anniston
- ●One soil character for all of Anniston
- ●Frost dates read at Anniston's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Anniston's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Anniston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Anniston, Missouri — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Anniston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Anniston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Anniston average
How we know this about Anniston
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 Anniston’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 Anniston
When does frost risk typically end in Anniston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Anniston typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Anniston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Anniston typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Anniston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Anniston sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Nov 1, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Anniston?
The federal record around Anniston shows 110 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (52), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Anniston?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Anniston's scale — its 7b band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Anniston'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 Anniston’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Anniston's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 250 acres it covers and 110 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Anniston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Anniston's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 15 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 110 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Anniston, the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Anniston's boundary and the 250 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Anniston's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Anniston's 250 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Mississippi County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Mississippi County
- The growing challenges every Missouri grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Missouri
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Mississippi County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Anniston's 250 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Anniston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 250 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.4 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 Anniston-wide figureread your own land →