Hollywood, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Hollywood, 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 Hollywood 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 Hollywood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hollywood — the short answer
Hollywood, Alabama: USDA zone 7b, about 239 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- 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
- ~239
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 6K 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 7b is Hollywood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hollywood's 239-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hollywood
Each reading below is measured for Hollywood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHollywood runs about 239 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
MeasuredHollywood sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Hollywood is in
Hollywood sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hollywood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Jackson County.
What Grows in Hollywood
Every plant below cleared Hollywood's own zone 7b and its 239-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hollywood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (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 Hollywood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hollywood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H J WALKER OIL CO INCUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- STEPHENS FUEL STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- KTNABrownfields · 1400 ft
- TOWN OF HOLLYWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- TENNSSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY - CENTRAL-IN-PROCESSINGBrownfields · 1600 ft
- HOLLYWOOD TRUCK STOPUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- WALDENS AT HOLLYWOODUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- GIBSON GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- HOLLYWOOD JR HIGH SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SUNBELT RENTALS PC 1851Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- MACHENS GROCERYUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- WORD POPCORN (GREAT WESTERN PRODUCTSUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hollywood'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 Hollywood.
Total Sites
196
within ~10 miles of Hollywood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hollywood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hollywood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hollywood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hollywood — CAFO (13 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (133 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 Hollywood
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 Hollywood average
Your land is one point inside Hollywood
Everything above resolves to Hollywood as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Hollywood Average
Hollywood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hollywood
- ●One soil character for all of Hollywood
- ●Frost dates read at Hollywood's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hollywood's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hollywood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hollywood, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hollywood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hollywood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hollywood average
How we know this about Hollywood
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 Hollywood’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 Hollywood
When does frost risk typically end in Hollywood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hollywood typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Hollywood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hollywood 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 239 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hollywood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hollywood sees about 239 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 29, about 204 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hollywood?
The federal record around Hollywood is a meaningful one — 196 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (133), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Hollywood?
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 Hollywood's scale — its 7b band and its 239-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hollywood'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 Hollywood’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hollywood's own scale — its own ~239-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,820 acres it covers and 196 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hollywood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hollywood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 12 and the ~239-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 196 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hollywood, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hollywood's boundary and the 5,820 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~239-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hollywood's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hollywood's 5,820 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jackson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jackson 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 Jackson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Hollywood's 5,820 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hollywood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,820 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 Hollywood-wide figureread your own land →
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