Broomtown, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Broomtown, 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 Broomtown 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 Broomtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Broomtown — the short answer
Broomtown, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Broomtown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Broomtown's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Broomtown
Each reading below is measured for Broomtown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBroomtown runs about 237 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
MeasuredBroomtown 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 Broomtown is in
Broomtown sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Broomtown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cherokee County.
What Grows in Broomtown
Every plant below cleared Broomtown's own zone 8a and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Broomtown?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Broomtown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Broomtown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- C.B. MILLER GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- SOUTHERNWOOD POULTRYCAFO · 2.4 mi
- TERRYS STOP N SAVEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- HUGHES FARMCAFO · 3.3 mi
- PHUONG KIM HO POULTRY FARMCAFO · 3.3 mi
- RICHARDSON FARMSCAFO · 3.4 mi
- ONE STOP CITGOUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- Well C 2 Cherokee County AlNitrate · 3.6 mi
- D.L. RAYUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- TIM CANADA FARMCAFO · 4.0 mi
- CROSS ROADS CORNER STORE #626Underground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- SPEARMANS PLACE & GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Broomtown'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 Broomtown.
Total Sites
75
within ~10 miles of Broomtown
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Broomtown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Broomtown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Broomtown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Broomtown — CAFO (12 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Broomtown
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 Broomtown average
Your land is one point inside Broomtown
Everything above resolves to Broomtown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Broomtown Average
Broomtown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Broomtown
- ●One soil character for all of Broomtown
- ●Frost dates read at Broomtown's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Broomtown's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Broomtown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Broomtown, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Broomtown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Broomtown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Broomtown average
How we know this about Broomtown
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 Broomtown’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 Broomtown
When does frost risk typically end in Broomtown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Broomtown typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Broomtown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Broomtown typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Broomtown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Broomtown sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 29, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Broomtown?
The federal record around Broomtown shows 75 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (44), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Broomtown?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Broomtown's scale — its 8a band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Broomtown'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 Broomtown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Broomtown's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,004 acres it covers and 75 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Broomtown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Broomtown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 12 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 75 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Broomtown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Broomtown's boundary and the 3,004 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Broomtown's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Broomtown's 3,004 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cherokee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cherokee 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 Cherokee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Broomtown's 3,004 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Broomtown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,004 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.2 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 Broomtown-wide figureread your own land →
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