Caledonia, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — 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 Caledonia, 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 Caledonia 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 Caledonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Caledonia — the short answer
Caledonia, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 2K 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
- 2K 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 Caledonia's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Caledonia's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Caledonia
Each reading below is measured for Caledonia itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCaledonia runs about 263 days between hard freezes (read from Lowndes County, the closest normal to Caledonia) — 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
MeasuredCaledonia 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 Caledonia is in
Caledonia sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Caledonia's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lowndes County.
What Grows in Caledonia
Every plant below cleared Caledonia'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 Caledonia?
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. 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 Caledonia
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Caledonia. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 087B0030 LOWNDESNitrate · 600 ft
- Caledonia Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Caledonia SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Caledonia Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Lowndes County District 1Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- TOWN OF CALEDONIAPFAS · 2.2 mi
- CALEDONIA POWER I LLCBrownfields · 2.6 mi
- TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, LOWNDES 500 KV SUBSTATIONBrownfields · 2.7 mi
- Hatfield Co LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Midway Grocery StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- TVA CALEDONIA COMBINED CYCLE PLANTBrownfields · 3.7 mi
- TVA CALEDONIA COMBINED CYCLE PLANTToxics Release Inventory · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Caledonia'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 Caledonia.
Total Sites
64
within ~10 miles of Caledonia
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Caledonia
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Caledonia
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Caledonia, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Caledonia — PFAS (3 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Caledonia
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 Caledonia average
Your land is one point inside Caledonia
Everything above resolves to Caledonia as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K 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 Caledonia Average
Caledonia Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Caledonia
- ●One soil character for all of Caledonia
- ●Frost dates read at Caledonia's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Caledonia's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Caledonia
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Caledonia, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Caledonia averages can't show:
We read public map data around Caledonia — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Caledonia average
How we know this about Caledonia
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 Caledonia
When does frost risk typically end in Caledonia?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Caledonia 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 Caledonia?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Caledonia 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 Caledonia?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Caledonia 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 Caledonia?
The federal record around Caledonia is a meaningful one — 64 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), the nearest Nitrate record about 0.1 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 Caledonia?
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 Caledonia's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Caledonia'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 Caledonia’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Caledonia's own scale — the 1,808 acres it covers and 64 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Caledonia's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 64 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Caledonia, the closest Nitrate record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Caledonia's boundary and the 1,808 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 Caledonia's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Caledonia 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 Caledonia's 1,808 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 Caledonia's 1,808 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Caledonia you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,808 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Caledonia-wide figureread your own land →
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