Crenshaw, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Crenshaw, 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 Crenshaw 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 Crenshaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Crenshaw — the short answer
Crenshaw, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 263 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Panola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Panola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- Panola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 263 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 Panola County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Crenshaw's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Crenshaw's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Crenshaw
Each reading below is measured for Crenshaw itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsCrenshaw runs about 245 days between hard freezes (read from Panola County, the closest normal to Crenshaw) — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredCrenshaw 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 Crenshaw is in
Crenshaw sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Crenshaw's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Panola County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Crenshaw
Every plant below cleared Crenshaw's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Crenshaw?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Crenshaw
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Crenshaw. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Stanley ButlerUnderground Storage Tanks · 400 ft
- W C McleanUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Alex's 7Underground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Hole-n-WallUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Parks Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- DANA CORPORATION, PLUMLEY DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1200 ft
- F & S GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Johnny HatleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Charlie's Package StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Tavoleti & SonsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- 107E0002 PANOLANitrate · 1900 ft
- Matthews GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Crenshaw'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 Crenshaw.
Total Sites
51
within ~10 miles of Crenshaw
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Crenshaw
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Crenshaw
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Crenshaw, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Crenshaw. 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 Crenshaw
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 Crenshaw average
Your land is one point inside Crenshaw
Everything above resolves to Crenshaw as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 263 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Panola 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 Crenshaw Average
Crenshaw Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Crenshaw
- ●One soil character for all of Crenshaw
- ●Frost dates read at Crenshaw's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Crenshaw's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Crenshaw
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Crenshaw, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Crenshaw averages can't show:
We read public map data around Crenshaw — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Crenshaw average
How we know this about Crenshaw
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 Panola 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 Crenshaw
When does frost risk typically end in Crenshaw?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Crenshaw typically lands around Mar 13, 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 Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Crenshaw?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Crenshaw typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Crenshaw?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Crenshaw sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 30, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Crenshaw?
The federal record around Crenshaw shows 51 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (27), 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 Crenshaw?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Crenshaw's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Crenshaw'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 Crenshaw’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Crenshaw's own scale — the 263 acres it covers and 51 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Crenshaw's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 51 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Crenshaw, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Crenshaw's boundary and the 263 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Crenshaw sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Crenshaw has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Panola County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Crenshaw's 263 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Panola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Panola 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 Panola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Crenshaw's 263 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Crenshaw you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 263 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 Crenshaw-wide figureread your own land →