Duck Hill, 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.
Even in Duck Hill, 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 Duck Hill 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 Duck Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Duck Hill — the short answer
Duck Hill, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 662 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- Montgomery County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 662 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 Montgomery County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Duck Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Duck Hill's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Duck Hill
Each reading below is measured for Duck Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsDuck Hill runs about 233 days between hard freezes (read from Montgomery County, the closest normal to Duck Hill) — 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
MeasuredDuck Hill 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 Duck Hill is in
Duck Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Duck Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Montgomery County.
What Grows in Duck Hill
Every plant below cleared Duck Hill's own zone 8a and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Duck Hill?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Duck Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Duck Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rays Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Lancaster Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Bst Duck Hill 75111Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Duck Hill Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- 097D0026 MONTGOMERYNitrate · 1200 ft
- Git N GoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- 097D0101 MONTGOMERYNitrate · 2200 ft
- Bennett's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- GEORGIA PACIFIC WOOD PRODUCTS,GRENADAToxics Release Inventory · 3.6 mi
- Thomas WoodUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- OMNISOURCE SOUTHWEST LLC - ELLIOT FACILITYBrownfields · 4.1 mi
- THOMAS WOOD PRESERVING INCBrownfields · 4.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Duck Hill'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 Duck Hill.
Total Sites
80
within ~10 miles of Duck Hill
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
11 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Duck Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Duck Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Duck Hill, Toxics Release Inventory runs higher than the national average — 11 sites within ~10 miles of Duck Hill. 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.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Duck Hill
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 Duck Hill average
Your land is one point inside Duck Hill
Everything above resolves to Duck Hill as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 662 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Montgomery 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 Duck Hill Average
Duck Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Duck Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Duck Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Duck Hill's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Duck Hill's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Duck Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Duck Hill, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Duck Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Duck Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Duck Hill average
How we know this about Duck Hill
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 Montgomery 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 Duck Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Duck Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Duck Hill typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Duck Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Duck Hill typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Duck Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Duck Hill sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 27, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Duck Hill?
The federal record around Duck Hill shows 80 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (40), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Duck Hill?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Duck Hill's scale — its 8a band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Duck Hill'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 Duck Hill’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Duck Hill's own scale — the 662 acres it covers and 80 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Duck Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 80 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Duck Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Duck Hill's boundary and the 662 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Duck Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Duck Hill has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Montgomery County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Duck Hill's 662 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Montgomery County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Montgomery 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 Montgomery County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Duck Hill's 662 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Duck Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 662 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Duck Hill-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiDuck Hill sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides