Boaz, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Boaz, 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 Boaz 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 Boaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Boaz — the short answer
Boaz, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 9K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 9K 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 Boaz's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Boaz's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Boaz
Each reading below is measured for Boaz itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBoaz runs about 264 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBoaz 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 Boaz is in
Boaz sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Boaz's own centroid rather than borrowed from Marshall County.
What Grows in Boaz
Every plant below cleared Boaz's own zone 8a and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Boaz?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Boaz
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Boaz. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DUKE'S CLEANERS INCBrownfields · 300 ft
- Y MART CHEVRONUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Y MART 7-ELEVENUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- BOAZ GULFUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- RAINBOW FOOD MART #115Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JET PEP #77 (BRITTON OIL #7007)Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- WALGREENS #10965Brownfields · 1400 ft
- ABBIE AUTO PARTS, INC.Brownfields · 1400 ft
- SUPER SERVICE INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- CRAIN MINIT-MAN BOAZ SHELL #323Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- ALEXANDER FORDBrownfields · 1900 ft
- KILPATRICK CHEVYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Boaz'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 Boaz.
Total Sites
373
within ~10 miles of Boaz
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Boaz
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Boaz
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Boaz, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Boaz — CAFO (74 sites) and PFAS (4 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Boaz
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 Boaz average
Your land is one point inside Boaz
Everything above resolves to Boaz as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 9K 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 Boaz Average
Boaz Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Boaz
- ●One soil character for all of Boaz
- ●Frost dates read at Boaz's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Boaz's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Boaz
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Boaz, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Boaz averages can't show:
We read public map data around Boaz — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Boaz average
How we know this about Boaz
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 Boaz’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 Boaz
When does frost risk typically end in Boaz?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Boaz typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Boaz?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Boaz typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Boaz?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Boaz sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 12, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Boaz?
The federal record around Boaz is a meaningful one — 373 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (191), the nearest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Boaz?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Boaz's scale — its 8a band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Boaz'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 Boaz’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Boaz's own scale — its own ~264-day season between 28°F freezes, the 9,314 acres it covers and 373 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Boaz's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Boaz's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 26 and the ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 373 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Boaz, the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Boaz's boundary and the 9,314 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Boaz's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Boaz's 9,314 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Boaz's 9,314 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Boaz you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 9,314 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record under a tenth of a mile 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 Boaz-wide figureread your own land →
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