Artesia, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Artesia, 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 Artesia 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 Artesia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Artesia — the short answer
Artesia, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 601 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- Lowndes County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 601 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 Lowndes County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Artesia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Artesia's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Artesia
Each reading below is measured for Artesia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsArtesia runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Lowndes County, the closest normal to Artesia) — 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
MeasuredArtesia 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 Artesia is in
Artesia sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Artesia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lowndes County.
What Grows in Artesia
Every plant below cleared Artesia's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Artesia?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 3; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 3 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Artesia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Artesia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Off The Strip GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Lumus GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- 087J0002 LOWNDESNitrate · 2500 ft
- 087J0009 LOWNDESNitrate · 2500 ft
- Miller Transporters IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Artesia AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DELTA INDUSTRIES, INC - PLANT 41Toxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- DELTA INDUSTRIES, INC, COLUMBUS AD PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- Greenline EquipmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- ENVIRONMENTAL LABATORY SERVICESBrownfields · 3.2 mi
- TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION AT GOLDEN TRIANGLE REGIONAL GTRBrownfields · 3.4 mi
- HOLCIM (US) INC - ARTESIA PLANTBrownfields · 3.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Artesia'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 Artesia.
Total Sites
118
within ~10 miles of Artesia
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Artesia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Artesia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Artesia, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Artesia. 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 Artesia
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 Artesia average
Your land is one point inside Artesia
Everything above resolves to Artesia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 601 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Lowndes 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 Artesia Average
Artesia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Artesia
- ●One soil character for all of Artesia
- ●Frost dates read at Artesia's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Artesia's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Artesia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Artesia, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Artesia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Artesia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Artesia average
How we know this about Artesia
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 Lowndes 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 Artesia
When does frost risk typically end in Artesia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Artesia typically lands around Mar 3, 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 24.
When is the first frost in Artesia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Artesia typically arrives around Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 7, so the watching starts about Oct 22 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Artesia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Artesia sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 7, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Artesia?
The federal record around Artesia shows 118 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (62), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Artesia?
From about Oct 22 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 21 (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 21. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Artesia's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Artesia'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 Artesia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Artesia's own scale — the 601 acres it covers and 118 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Artesia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 118 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Artesia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Artesia's boundary and the 601 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Artesia's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Artesia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Lowndes County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Artesia's 601 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lowndes County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lowndes 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 Lowndes County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Artesia's 601 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Artesia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 601 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Artesia-wide figureread your own land →
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