Cottonwood, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Cottonwood, 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 Cottonwood 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 Cottonwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cottonwood — the short answer
Cottonwood, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 9a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 10
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~296
- Houston County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 4K 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 Houston County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 9a is Cottonwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cottonwood's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cottonwood
Each reading below is measured for Cottonwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCottonwood runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Houston County, the closest normal to Cottonwood) — 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
MeasuredCottonwood sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a.
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 Cottonwood is in
Cottonwood sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cottonwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houston County.
What Grows in Cottonwood
Every plant below cleared Cottonwood's own zone 9a and its 296-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cottonwood?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 10 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With almost year-round growing weather, timing is about heat and rainfall more than frost — some bench is always in play.
What's on the federal record near Cottonwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cottonwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- COTTONWOOD HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BELL PEANUTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HASTEN MCCARDLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Well S 3 310254085181501 Houston County AlNitrate · 1100 ft
- SUN VALLEY MARKETS 635Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Well S 5 310259085175301 Houston County AlNitrate · 1400 ft
- COTTONWOOD HIGH SCHOOL ADDITIONBrownfields · 1600 ft
- E Z SERVE #4389Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- HOBO PANTRY #4Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- MCNEAL BAIT AND TACKLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Well S 6 310204085182901 Houston County AlNitrate · 1.5 mi
- IRBY JORDAN'S USED OIL OPERATIONBrownfields · 3.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cottonwood'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 Cottonwood.
Total Sites
102
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cottonwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cottonwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cottonwood — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (65 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Cottonwood
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 Cottonwood average
Your land is one point inside Cottonwood
Everything above resolves to Cottonwood as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 4K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Houston 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 Cottonwood Average
Cottonwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cottonwood
- ●One soil character for all of Cottonwood
- ●Frost dates read at Cottonwood's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cottonwood's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cottonwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cottonwood, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cottonwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cottonwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cottonwood average
How we know this about Cottonwood
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 Houston 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 Cottonwood
When does frost risk typically end in Cottonwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood typically lands around Feb 10, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Cottonwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cottonwood typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 296 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cottonwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cottonwood sees about 296 frost-free days — roughly Feb 10 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 3 to Nov 19, about 261 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cottonwood?
The federal record around Cottonwood shows 102 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (65), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cottonwood?
From about Nov 3 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cottonwood's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cottonwood'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 Cottonwood’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cottonwood's own scale — the 3,700 acres it covers and 102 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cottonwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 102 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cottonwood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cottonwood's boundary and the 3,700 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 9a and a ~296-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cottonwood's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cottonwood has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Houston County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cottonwood's 3,700 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Houston County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Houston 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 Houston County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cottonwood's 3,700 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cottonwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,700 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Cottonwood-wide figureread your own land →
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