Cowarts, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 9a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with artichoke, fig, california poppy, and cabbage — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Cowarts, 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 Cowarts 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 Cowarts — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cowarts — the short answer
Cowarts, Alabama: USDA zone 9a, about 296 days between hard freezes, across 5K 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
- 5K 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 Cowarts's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cowarts's 296-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cowarts
Each reading below is measured for Cowarts itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCowarts runs about 296 days between hard freezes (read from Houston County, the closest normal to Cowarts) — 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
MeasuredCowarts 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 Cowarts is in
Cowarts sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cowarts's own centroid rather than borrowed from Houston County.
What Grows in Cowarts
Every plant below cleared Cowarts'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 Cowarts?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Cowarts
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cowarts. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- BREEZE IN MART #1Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- DICKERSON BODY SHOPBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- HUGHES BROTHERS AUTO SALES & SERVICE INCBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- HOBO BULK PLANTUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- BORDEN DAIRYToxics Release Inventory · 1.1 mi
- DAIRY FRESH CORPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- HOBO FOOD STORE #7Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- BETTER BRANDS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- WHOLESALE WOOD PRODUCTS INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- BIG J TIRE AND SERVICE CENTER, LLCBrownfields · 1.9 mi
- MIMS TRUCKSTOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- BEAR CREEK BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cowarts'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 Cowarts.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cowarts
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cowarts
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cowarts, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 333 sites within ~10 miles of Cowarts. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Cowarts
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 Cowarts average
Your land is one point inside Cowarts
Everything above resolves to Cowarts as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 5K 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 Cowarts Average
Cowarts Average
- ●USDA Zones 9a, averaged across Cowarts
- ●One soil character for all of Cowarts
- ●Frost dates read at Cowarts's scale: Feb 10 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cowarts's 9a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cowarts
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cowarts, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cowarts averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cowarts — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cowarts average
How we know this about Cowarts
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 Cowarts
When does frost risk typically end in Cowarts?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cowarts 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 Cowarts?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cowarts 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 Cowarts?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cowarts 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 Cowarts?
The federal record around Cowarts is a meaningful one — 516 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (333), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Cowarts?
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 Cowarts's scale — its 9a band and its 296-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cowarts'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 Cowarts’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Cowarts's own scale — the 4,899 acres it covers and 516 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cowarts's own USDA hardiness band, zones 9aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 516 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cowarts, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cowarts's boundary and the 4,899 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 Cowarts's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Cowarts 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 Cowarts's 4,899 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 Cowarts's 4,899 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cowarts you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,899 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 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 Cowarts-wide figureread your own land →
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