Mountain Brook, Alabama, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Mountain Brook, 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 Mountain Brook 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 Mountain Brook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Mountain Brook — the short answer
Mountain Brook, Alabama: USDA zone 8b, about 270 days between hard freezes, across 8K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 2
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~270
- Jefferson County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 8K 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 Jefferson County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Mountain Brook's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Mountain Brook's 270-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Mountain Brook
Each reading below is measured for Mountain Brook itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsMountain Brook runs about 270 days between hard freezes (read from Jefferson County, the closest normal to Mountain Brook) — 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
MeasuredMountain Brook sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Mountain Brook is in
Mountain Brook sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Mountain Brook's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Jefferson County is mostly Southwestern Appalachians. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Mountain Brook
Every plant below cleared Mountain Brook's own zone 8b and its 270-day season. Each card opens that plant's Alabama profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Mountain Brook?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 2 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Mountain Brook
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Mountain Brook. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MOUNTAIN BROOK HIGH SCHOOLBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- IRONDALE WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.2 mi
- CRESTLINE BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CITY OF MOUNTAIN BROOKUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CRESTLINE AMOCOUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CRESTLINE SHELLUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CC FOOD MART CRESTLINEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CLUB VILLAGE SERVICE STATIONUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- CRESTLINE TEXACO SERVICE CENTERUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #2505Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- SNAX PAXUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- PUBLIX SUPER MARKET #1085Brownfields · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Mountain Brook'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 Mountain Brook.
Total Sites
2,087
within ~10 miles of Mountain Brook
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
35 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Mountain Brook
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Mountain Brook
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Mountain Brook, Superfund runs higher than the national average — 35 sites within ~10 miles of Mountain Brook. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Mountain Brook
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 Mountain Brook average
Your land is one point inside Mountain Brook
Everything above resolves to Mountain Brook as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 8K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Jefferson County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Mountain Brook Average
Mountain Brook Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Mountain Brook
- ●One soil character for all of Mountain Brook
- ●Frost dates read at Mountain Brook's scale: Mar 2 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Mountain Brook's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Mountain Brook
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Mountain Brook, Alabama — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Mountain Brook averages can't show:
We read public map data around Mountain Brook — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Mountain Brook average
How we know this about Mountain Brook
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Jefferson 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Mountain Brook
When does frost risk typically end in Mountain Brook?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Brook typically lands around Mar 2, 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 23.
When is the first frost in Mountain Brook?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Mountain Brook typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 270 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Mountain Brook?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Mountain Brook sees about 270 frost-free days — roughly Mar 2 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 23 to Nov 13, about 235 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Mountain Brook?
The federal record around Mountain Brook is a meaningful one — 2,087 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (1,229), the nearest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Mountain Brook?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Mountain Brook's scale — its 8b band and its 270-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Mountain Brook'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 Mountain Brook’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Mountain Brook's own scale — the 8,218 acres it covers and 2,087 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Mountain Brook's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 2,087 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Mountain Brook, the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Mountain Brook's boundary and the 8,218 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~270-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Mountain Brook sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Mountain Brook has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Jefferson County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Mountain Brook's 8,218 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Jefferson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Jefferson 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 Jefferson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Mountain Brook's 8,218 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Mountain Brook you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 8,218 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 1.1 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 Mountain Brook-wide figureread your own land →
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