Dodge City, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Dodge City, 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 Dodge City 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 Dodge City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dodge City — the short answer
Dodge City, Alabama: USDA zone 8a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Dodge City's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dodge City's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dodge City
Each reading below is measured for Dodge City itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDodge City runs about 233 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
MeasuredDodge City 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 Dodge City is in
Dodge City sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dodge City's own centroid rather than borrowed from Cullman County.
What Grows in Dodge City
Every plant below cleared Dodge City's own zone 8a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dodge City?
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 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Dodge City
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dodge City. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DODGE CITY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 69 QUICK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- BIG JAKES PUREUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DODGE CITY PETRO TRAVEL CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- ROBYCO DODGE CITY MR VUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DODGE CITY M&M TEXACOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- DODGE CITY SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- GOLD KIST TRUCK SHOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CULLMAN COUNTY GARAGEBrownfields · 1.7 mi
- AL0105 JET PEPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PURE COUNTRY GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- VALLEY GROVE GROCERY TRIMBLEUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dodge City'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 Dodge City.
Total Sites
272
within ~10 miles of Dodge City
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dodge City
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dodge City
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Dodge City, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Dodge City — CAFO (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (181 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 Dodge City
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 Dodge City average
Your land is one point inside Dodge City
Everything above resolves to Dodge City as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Dodge City Average
Dodge City Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dodge City
- ●One soil character for all of Dodge City
- ●Frost dates read at Dodge City's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dodge City's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dodge City
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dodge City, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dodge City averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dodge City — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dodge City average
How we know this about Dodge City
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 Dodge City’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 Dodge City
When does frost risk typically end in Dodge City?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dodge City typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Dodge City?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dodge City typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dodge City?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dodge City sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 26, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dodge City?
The federal record around Dodge City is a meaningful one — 272 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (181), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Dodge City?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dodge City's scale — its 8a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dodge City'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 Dodge City’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Dodge City's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,209 acres it covers and 272 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dodge City's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dodge City's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 9 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 272 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dodge City, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dodge City's boundary and the 2,209 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dodge City's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dodge City's 2,209 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Cullman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Cullman 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 Cullman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dodge City's 2,209 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dodge City you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,209 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Dodge City-wide figureread your own land →
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