Leake County, in Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Expect cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Leake County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Leake County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Leake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Leake County — the short answer
Leake County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 373K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 373K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 28°F normals: light frosts run a few weeks past them, and tender transplants usually wait 2–3 weeks after the last hard freeze.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Leake County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Leake County's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Leake County
Across a year, Leake County accumulates about 5,308 growing degree days above 50°F, about 90 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 33 of Mississippi’s 82 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Winter banks about 1,241 hours below 45°F, 49 more than the Mississippi middle of 1,192. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Leake County
Across Leake County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Smithdale, Rosebloom, and Ora are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B/D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
9%
Hydric soils
21%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Leake County
The USDA soil survey maps 42% of Leake County as well drained — but another 57% drains differently: 23% moderately well drained, 19% poorly drained.
Smithdale is the most extensive named soil at 28% of mapped acres, then Rosebloom (12%) and Ora (11%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Leake County
Each reading below is measured for Leake County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Leake County are well drained, in hydrologic group B/D — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Leake County runs about pH 5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Wet ground
MeasuredAbout 21% of Leake County is mapped as hydric — wetland — soil.
If your lot falls in one of those pockets, a standard in-ground bed will fight waterlogging all season, and roots that need air will struggle.
Check how your own ground drains before you dig; raised beds or moisture-loving plantings turn a wet corner from a problem into a niche.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLeake County runs about 264 days between hard freezes — 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
The kind of country Leake County is in
Leake County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southeastern Plains (94%) and Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (6%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Leake County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Leake County's own USDA zone 8b and its own 264-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile.
Is it too late to plant in Leake County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 22 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Leake County
USGS estimates 7,898 lb of Glyphosate on Leake County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (3,274 lb) and Acephate (1,894 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Leake County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Leake County — 147 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Leake County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Leake County
Closest first, across Leake County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- International Paper Leake UnitUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Carthage Leake County AirportUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SUDDEN SERVICES, REMANUFACTURING CENTERBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- SUDDEN SERVICES, REMANUFACTURING CENTERToxics Release Inventory · 0.8 mi
- 25/35 ChevronUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- CHOCTAW MANUFACTURING ENTERPRISEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- 079F0001 LEAKENitrate · 1.0 mi
- Brantley'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Quick Save Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- H AND H CHIEF SALES INCBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- Carthage Attendance CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Discount DepotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Leake County'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 Leake County.
Total Sites
147
across Leake County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Leake County
Severity Distribution
across Leake County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Leake County, two things run higher than the national average across Leake County — CAFO (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (100 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Leake County
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 Leake County average
Your land is one point inside Leake County
Everything above resolves to Leake County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 373K acres. 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Leake County Average
Leake County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Leake County
- ●One soil character for all of Leake County
- ●Frost dates read at Leake County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Leake County's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Leake County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Leake County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Leake County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Leake County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Leake County average
How we know this about Leake County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Leake County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Leake County
When does frost risk typically end in Leake County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Leake County 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.
How long is the growing season in Leake County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Leake County sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Leake County?
The federal record around Leake County shows 147 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (100), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 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.
Everything above is measured at Leake County's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Leake County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Mississippi's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Leake County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Leake County's own scale — its own ~264-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 147 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Leake County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Leake County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~264-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Leake CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 147 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.8 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Leake County's boundary and the 373,054 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Leake County spans, Southeastern Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Leake County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Mississippi grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Mississippi
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Leake County — the ~264 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Leake County's 373,054 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 147 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Leake Countyread your own land →