Elizabeth, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Elizabeth, 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 Elizabeth 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 Elizabeth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Elizabeth — the short answer
Elizabeth, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 288 days between hard freezes, across 203 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 18
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 3
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~288
- Washington County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 203 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 Washington County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Elizabeth's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Elizabeth's 288-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Elizabeth
Each reading below is measured for Elizabeth itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsElizabeth runs about 288 days between hard freezes (read from Washington County, the closest normal to Elizabeth) — 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
MeasuredElizabeth sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Elizabeth is in
Elizabeth sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Elizabeth's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Elizabeth
Every plant below cleared Elizabeth's own zone 8b and its 288-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Elizabeth?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 3 — 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's on the federal record near Elizabeth
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Elizabeth. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Livingston Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- MDOT Leland Maintenance HQUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Leland Maintenance Hq MshdUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KNU LLC DBA LA-Z-BOY CONTRACT FURNITUREBrownfields · 1.1 mi
- Lim's SuperetteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- USDA ARS MS JAMIE WHITTEN DELTA STATES RESEARCH CENTERBrownfields · 1.3 mi
- 151E0046 WASHINGTONNitrate · 1.4 mi
- Leland Street Sanitation DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Wing DingsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Delta Building MaterialUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Double Quick #110Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- 151E0013 WASHINGTONNitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Elizabeth'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 Elizabeth.
Total Sites
313
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Elizabeth
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Elizabeth, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 98 sites within ~10 miles of Elizabeth. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Elizabeth
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 Elizabeth average
Your land is one point inside Elizabeth
Everything above resolves to Elizabeth as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 203 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Washington 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 Elizabeth Average
Elizabeth Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Elizabeth
- ●One soil character for all of Elizabeth
- ●Frost dates read at Elizabeth's scale: Feb 18 to Dec 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Elizabeth's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Elizabeth
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Elizabeth, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Elizabeth averages can't show:
We read public map data around Elizabeth — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Elizabeth average
How we know this about Elizabeth
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 Washington 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 Elizabeth
When does frost risk typically end in Elizabeth?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth typically lands around Feb 18, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Elizabeth?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Elizabeth typically arrives around Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 19, so the watching starts about Nov 3 — about 288 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Elizabeth?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Elizabeth sees about 288 frost-free days — roughly Feb 18 through Dec 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 11 to Nov 19, about 253 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Elizabeth?
The federal record around Elizabeth is a meaningful one — 313 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (156), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Elizabeth?
From about Nov 3 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 Dec 3 (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 Dec 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Elizabeth's scale — its 8b band and its 288-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Elizabeth'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 Elizabeth’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Elizabeth's own scale — the 203 acres it covers and 313 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Elizabeth's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 313 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Elizabeth, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Elizabeth's boundary and the 203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~288-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Elizabeth's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Elizabeth has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Washington County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Elizabeth's 203 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Elizabeth's 203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Elizabeth you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 203 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 Elizabeth-wide figureread your own land →
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