Brandon, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brandon, 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 Brandon 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 Brandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Brandon — the short answer
Brandon, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 278 days between hard freezes, across 16K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 21
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 26
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~278
- Rankin County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 16K 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 Rankin County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Brandon's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brandon's 278-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brandon
Each reading below is measured for Brandon itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsBrandon runs about 278 days between hard freezes (read from Rankin County, the closest normal to Brandon) — 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
MeasuredBrandon 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 Brandon is in
Brandon sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brandon's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Rankin County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Brandon
Every plant below cleared Brandon's own zone 8b and its 278-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brandon?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 26 — 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 Brandon
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brandon. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Roger Dingus Chevrolet Geo IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Street Department BarnUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Bst Brandon Co 72218Underground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Singh Petro IUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- AUTO REPAIR MASTERS INCBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Boyce FordUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- FREDRICKS SALES AND SERVICEBrownfields · 1800 ft
- Duck-in Food Store #100247Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Kennedy CornerUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Express Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- BRANDON BODY SHOPBrownfields · 2000 ft
- G AND U AUTO SERVICEBrownfields · 2000 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brandon'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 Brandon.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brandon
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brandon
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brandon, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 6 sites within ~10 miles of Brandon. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Brandon
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 Brandon average
Your land is one point inside Brandon
Everything above resolves to Brandon as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 16K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Rankin County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 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 Brandon Average
Brandon Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Brandon
- ●One soil character for all of Brandon
- ●Frost dates read at Brandon's scale: Feb 21 to Nov 26
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brandon's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brandon
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brandon, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brandon averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brandon — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brandon average
How we know this about Brandon
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 Rankin 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 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 Brandon
When does frost risk typically end in Brandon?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brandon typically lands around Feb 21, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Brandon?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brandon typically arrives around Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 12, so the watching starts about Oct 27 — about 278 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brandon?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brandon sees about 278 frost-free days — roughly Feb 21 through Nov 26, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 14 to Nov 12, about 243 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brandon?
The federal record around Brandon is a meaningful one — 434 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (248), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out — so a soil test before new food beds is a sensible precaution here, not a reason to hold back from growing. Remember that proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what sits where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Brandon?
From about Oct 27 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 26 (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 26. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brandon's scale — its 8b band and its 278-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brandon'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 Brandon’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Brandon's own scale — the 16,424 acres it covers and 434 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brandon's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 434 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brandon, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brandon's boundary and the 16,424 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~278-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Brandon sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Brandon has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Rankin County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brandon's 16,424 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Rankin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Rankin 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 Rankin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brandon's 16,424 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brandon you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 16,424 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Brandon-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiBrandon sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides