Baldwyn, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Baldwyn, 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 Baldwyn 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 Baldwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Baldwyn — the short answer
Baldwyn, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Baldwyn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baldwyn's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baldwyn
Each reading below is measured for Baldwyn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaldwyn runs about 260 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBaldwyn 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 Baldwyn is in
Baldwyn sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baldwyn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Baldwyn
Every plant below cleared Baldwyn's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baldwyn?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Baldwyn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baldwyn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Pace ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Old Co Op BuildingUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- NanakUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Rutherford TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Quick Shoppe #89Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- City Of BaldwynUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Pace's Pak A PokeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Prentiss County District #3Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Baldwin GinUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Phillips 66 #010011Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Baldwyn AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 117J0068 PRENTISSNitrate · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baldwyn'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 Baldwyn.
Total Sites
125
within ~10 miles of Baldwyn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baldwyn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baldwyn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baldwyn, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baldwyn — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Baldwyn
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 Baldwyn average
Your land is one point inside Baldwyn
Everything above resolves to Baldwyn as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 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 Baldwyn Average
Baldwyn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Baldwyn
- ●One soil character for all of Baldwyn
- ●Frost dates read at Baldwyn's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baldwyn's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baldwyn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baldwyn, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baldwyn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baldwyn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baldwyn average
How we know this about Baldwyn
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 Baldwyn’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 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 Baldwyn
When does frost risk typically end in Baldwyn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwyn typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Baldwyn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baldwyn 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 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baldwyn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baldwyn sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 7, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baldwyn?
The federal record around Baldwyn shows 125 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), 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 Baldwyn?
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 Baldwyn's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baldwyn'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 Baldwyn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baldwyn's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 7,423 acres it covers and 125 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baldwyn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baldwyn's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 21 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 125 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baldwyn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baldwyn's boundary and the 7,423 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baldwyn's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baldwyn's 7,423 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baldwyn's 7,423 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baldwyn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 7,423 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 Baldwyn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiBaldwyn sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.