Charleston, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Charleston, 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 Charleston 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 Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charleston — the short answer
Charleston, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 867 acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 26
- Tallahatchie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- Tallahatchie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- Tallahatchie County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 867 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 Tallahatchie County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Charleston's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charleston's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charleston
Each reading below is measured for Charleston itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCharleston runs about 272 days between hard freezes (read from Tallahatchie County, the closest normal to Charleston) — 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
MeasuredCharleston 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 Charleston is in
Charleston sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Charleston's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Tallahatchie County is mostly Mississippi Alluvial Plain. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Charleston
Every plant below cleared Charleston's own zone 8a and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charleston?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 29; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. And with a calendar this mild, the honest answer is that planting barely stops — winter opens seasons colder regions never see.
What's on the federal record near Charleston
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charleston. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Charleston Food Mart #220Underground Storage Tanks · 200 ft
- Charleston FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Mary Francis LillyUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- G L Ross GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Bloodworth's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Erwin's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Tallahatchie Hardwood IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- 135F0025 TALLAHATCHIENitrate · 1300 ft
- C & L Convenience StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- City Of CharlestonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 135F0045 TALLAHATCHIENitrate · 1500 ft
- Mr Jiffy #5Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charleston'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 Charleston.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charleston
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charleston, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Charleston. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Charleston
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 Charleston average
Your land is one point inside Charleston
Everything above resolves to Charleston as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 867 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tallahatchie 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 Charleston Average
Charleston Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Charleston
- ●One soil character for all of Charleston
- ●Frost dates read at Charleston's scale: Feb 26 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charleston's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charleston
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charleston, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charleston averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charleston — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charleston average
How we know this about Charleston
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 Tallahatchie 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 Charleston
When does frost risk typically end in Charleston?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charleston typically lands around Feb 26, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Charleston?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charleston typically arrives around Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 11, so the watching starts about Oct 26 — about 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charleston?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charleston sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Feb 26 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 19 to Nov 11, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charleston?
The federal record around Charleston shows 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Charleston?
From about Oct 26 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 25 (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 25. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Charleston's scale — its 8a band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charleston'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 Charleston’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Charleston's own scale — the 867 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charleston's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charleston, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charleston's boundary and the 867 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Charleston 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 — Charleston has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tallahatchie County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charleston's 867 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tallahatchie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tallahatchie 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 Tallahatchie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charleston's 867 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charleston you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 867 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Charleston-wide figureread your own land →
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