Brooksville, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Brooksville, 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 Brooksville 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 Brooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brooksville — the short answer
Brooksville, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 269 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 27
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~269
- Noxubee County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Noxubee County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Brooksville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brooksville's 269-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brooksville
Each reading below is measured for Brooksville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBrooksville runs about 269 days between hard freezes (read from Noxubee County, the closest normal to Brooksville) — 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
MeasuredBrooksville 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 Brooksville is in
Brooksville sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brooksville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Noxubee County.
What Grows in Brooksville
Every plant below cleared Brooksville's own zone 8b and its 269-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brooksville?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 30; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 23 — 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 Brooksville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brooksville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hines Gulf ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Main Street GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- B & BUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- 103C0007 NOXUBEENitrate · 1700 ft
- 103C0042 NOXUBEENitrate · 2000 ft
- Watson's Lumber YardUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- PECO FOODS OF BROOKSVILLE, INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- 103C0016 NOXUBEENitrate · 0.7 mi
- Brooksville Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUPERIOR ASPHALT INC,NOXUBEE COUNTY #1Toxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- Mafes Black Belt Br Experiment StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Brooksville Microwave TowerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brooksville'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 Brooksville.
Total Sites
97
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brooksville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brooksville, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Brooksville. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Brooksville
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 Brooksville average
Your land is one point inside Brooksville
Everything above resolves to Brooksville as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Noxubee 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 Brooksville Average
Brooksville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Brooksville
- ●One soil character for all of Brooksville
- ●Frost dates read at Brooksville's scale: Feb 27 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brooksville's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brooksville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brooksville, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brooksville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brooksville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brooksville average
How we know this about Brooksville
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 Noxubee 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 Brooksville
When does frost risk typically end in Brooksville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brooksville typically lands around Feb 27, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Brooksville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brooksville typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 269 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brooksville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brooksville sees about 269 frost-free days — roughly Feb 27 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 20 to Nov 9, about 234 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brooksville?
The federal record around Brooksville shows 97 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (55), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brooksville?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brooksville's scale — its 8b band and its 269-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brooksville'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 Brooksville’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Brooksville's own scale — the 1,017 acres it covers and 97 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brooksville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 97 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brooksville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brooksville's boundary and the 1,017 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~269-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brooksville's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Brooksville has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Noxubee County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brooksville's 1,017 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Noxubee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Noxubee County
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Noxubee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brooksville's 1,017 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brooksville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,017 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Brooksville-wide figureread your own land →
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