Big Creek, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Big Creek, 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 Big Creek 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 Big Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Creek — the short answer
Big Creek, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 726 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 12
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- Calhoun County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 726 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 Calhoun County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Big Creek's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Creek's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Creek
Each reading below is measured for Big Creek itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBig Creek runs about 248 days between hard freezes (read from Calhoun County, the closest normal to Big Creek) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredBig Creek 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 Big Creek is in
Big Creek sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Creek's own centroid rather than borrowed from Calhoun County.
What Grows in Big Creek
Every plant below cleared Big Creek's own zone 8a and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Creek?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 12; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 12 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Big Creek
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Creek. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 013J0001 CALHOUNNitrate · 0.5 mi
- DUNCAN HILL WATER SUPPLYPFAS · 3.9 mi
- Pleasant Hill GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Midway GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Easley FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- 013K0004 CALHOUNNitrate · 4.9 mi
- 013K0001 CALHOUNNitrate · 5.7 mi
- Pryor Implement CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Calhoun ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Buck's One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Co Op Tire CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
- Ball Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Creek'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 Big Creek.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Big Creek
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Creek
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Creek
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Creek, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 26 sites within ~10 miles of Big Creek. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Big Creek
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 Big Creek average
Your land is one point inside Big Creek
Everything above resolves to Big Creek as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 726 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Calhoun 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 Big Creek Average
Big Creek Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Big Creek
- ●One soil character for all of Big Creek
- ●Frost dates read at Big Creek's scale: Mar 12 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Creek's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Creek
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Creek, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Creek averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Creek — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Creek average
How we know this about Big Creek
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 Calhoun 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 Big Creek
When does frost risk typically end in Big Creek?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Creek typically lands around Mar 12, 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 Apr 2.
When is the first frost in Big Creek?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Creek typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Creek?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Creek sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 12 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 2 to Nov 1, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Creek?
The federal record around Big Creek shows 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (33), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Big Creek?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Creek's scale — its 8a band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Creek'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 Big Creek’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Big Creek's own scale — the 726 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Creek's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Creek, the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Creek's boundary and the 726 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Creek's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Big Creek has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Calhoun County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Creek's 726 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Calhoun County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Calhoun 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 Calhoun County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Creek's 726 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Creek you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 726 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record about 0.5 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 Big Creek-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiBig Creek sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides