Lee County, in 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.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lee County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lee 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 Lee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lee County — the short answer
Lee County, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 288K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 288K 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 8a is Lee County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lee County's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lee County
Across a year, Lee County accumulates about 5,093 growing degree days above 50°F, about 305 fewer than the middle Mississippi county — ahead of 21 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 1,541 hours below 45°F, 349 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 Lee County
Across Lee County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Oktibbeha, Ora, and Luverne are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally moderately well drained with a fine sandy loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.0–5.5, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group D soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Moderately well drained
Prime farmland
30%
Hydric soils
6%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lee County
The USDA soil survey maps 45% of Lee County as moderately well drained — but another 48% drains differently: 21% somewhat poorly drained, 21% well drained.
Oktibbeha is the most extensive named soil at 13% of mapped acres, then Ora (11%) and Luverne (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 Lee County
Each reading below is measured for Lee 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 Lee County are moderately well drained, in hydrologic group D — roughly the middle of the drainage range.
This is close to the middle most vegetables prefer: it holds enough water to carry a crop between rains without staying waterlogged. The catch is that a wet spring or a low corner can still tip it soggy.
Plant on the site as-is for most crops, but keep the lowest, slowest-draining beds for moisture-tolerant plantings.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Lee County runs about pH 5.0–5.5, 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
Season length
MeasuredLee County runs about 266 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
Winter hardiness
MeasuredLee County 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 Lee County is in
Lee County sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Lee County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lee County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 266-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 Lee County?
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 24 — 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.
Documented around Lee County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
- monarch butterfly8 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lee County
USGS estimates 77,021 lb of Glyphosate on Lee County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of 2,4-d (16,135 lb) and Dimethenamid-p (15,930 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 Lee County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lee County — 663 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Lee County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Lee County
Closest first, across Lee County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Sprint Mart #47Underground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Crafton's BpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Sprint Mart #49 (Veterans Blvd)Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Formerly Craftons PureUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Annette TateUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- D W Lamey Fill & TruckingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Wicks LumberUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- LOWE'S OF TUPELO, MS #529Brownfields · 1.6 mi
- SMC RECYCLING INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.7 mi
- SAM'S CLUB #6329Brownfields · 1.7 mi
- Sam's Club #6329Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Indian HillsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lee 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 Lee County.
Total Sites
663
across Lee County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Lee County
Severity Distribution
across Lee County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lee County, two things run higher than the national average across Lee County — Toxics Release Inventory (74 sites) and PFAS (7 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Lee 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 Lee County average
Your land is one point inside Lee County
Everything above resolves to Lee County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 288K 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 Lee County Average
Lee County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lee County
- ●One soil character for all of Lee County
- ●Frost dates read at Lee County's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lee County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lee County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lee County, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lee County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lee County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lee County average
How we know this about Lee 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 Lee County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lee County
When does frost risk typically end in Lee County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lee 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 Lee County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lee County sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 10, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lee County?
The federal record around Lee County is a meaningful one — 663 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (365), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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.
Everything above is measured at Lee County's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lee 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 Lee County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lee County's own scale — its own ~266-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 663 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lee County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lee County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lee CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 663 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lee County's boundary and the 287,977 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lee County sitting wholly inside the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lee County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lee 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 Lee County — the ~266 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 Lee County's 287,977 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 663 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 Lee Countyread your own land →