Bentonia, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bentonia, 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 Bentonia 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 Bentonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bentonia — the short answer
Bentonia, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 282 days between hard freezes, across 911 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 19
- Yazoo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 28
- Yazoo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~282
- Yazoo County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 911 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 Yazoo County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Bentonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bentonia's 282-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bentonia
Each reading below is measured for Bentonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBentonia runs about 282 days between hard freezes (read from Yazoo County, the closest normal to Bentonia) — 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
MeasuredBentonia 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 Bentonia is in
Bentonia sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bentonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Yazoo County.
What Grows in Bentonia
Every plant below cleared Bentonia's own zone 8b and its 282-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bentonia?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 28 — 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 Bentonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bentonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bentonia ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Henrietta DayUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Bentonia Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Bentonia Gas & FoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Holmes GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Cathy & Wilford JonesUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- W S RED HANCOCK INCORPORATEDBrownfields · 2200 ft
- W S ""Red"" Hancock IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Twiner Travel CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- B & S GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- 163W0017 YAZOONitrate · 1.1 mi
- Bentonia Radio Relay StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bentonia'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 Bentonia.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bentonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bentonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bentonia, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 41 sites within ~10 miles of Bentonia. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bentonia
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 Bentonia average
Your land is one point inside Bentonia
Everything above resolves to Bentonia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 911 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Yazoo 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 Bentonia Average
Bentonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Bentonia
- ●One soil character for all of Bentonia
- ●Frost dates read at Bentonia's scale: Feb 19 to Nov 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bentonia's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bentonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bentonia, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bentonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bentonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bentonia average
How we know this about Bentonia
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 Yazoo 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 Bentonia
When does frost risk typically end in Bentonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonia typically lands around Feb 19, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Bentonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bentonia typically arrives around Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 14, so the watching starts about Oct 29 — about 282 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bentonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bentonia sees about 282 frost-free days — roughly Feb 19 through Nov 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 12 to Nov 14, about 247 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bentonia?
The federal record around Bentonia shows 56 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), 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 Bentonia?
From about Oct 29 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bentonia's scale — its 8b band and its 282-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bentonia'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 Bentonia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Bentonia's own scale — the 911 acres it covers and 56 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bentonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 56 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bentonia, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bentonia's boundary and the 911 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~282-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bentonia's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Bentonia has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Yazoo County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bentonia's 911 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Yazoo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Yazoo 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 Yazoo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bentonia's 911 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bentonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 911 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 Bentonia-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiBentonia sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides