Guntown, 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.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Guntown, 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 Guntown 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 Guntown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Guntown — the short answer
Guntown, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 260 days between hard freezes, across 4K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~260
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 4K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Guntown's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Guntown's 260-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Guntown
Each reading below is measured for Guntown itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGuntown runs about 260 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
MeasuredGuntown 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 Guntown is in
Guntown sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Guntown's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lee County.
What Grows in Guntown
Every plant below cleared Guntown's own zone 8a and its 260-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Guntown?
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 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (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. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Guntown
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Guntown. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Presleys Fina StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- White Milling CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Truman StarklingUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Lakeside GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Guntown Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Bull Market #23Underground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- 081B0022 LEENitrate · 1900 ft
- Guntown GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Marjorie WoosleyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mary's Minit MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- 081B0011 LEENitrate · 2400 ft
- 081B0012 LEENitrate · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Guntown'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 Guntown.
Total Sites
157
within ~10 miles of Guntown
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
19 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Guntown
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Guntown
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Guntown, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Guntown — PFAS (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Guntown
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 Guntown average
Your land is one point inside Guntown
Everything above resolves to Guntown as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 4K 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 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 Guntown Average
Guntown Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Guntown
- ●One soil character for all of Guntown
- ●Frost dates read at Guntown's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Guntown's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Guntown
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Guntown, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Guntown averages can't show:
We read public map data around Guntown — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Guntown average
How we know this about Guntown
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 Guntown’s own record; 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 Guntown
When does frost risk typically end in Guntown?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Guntown typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Guntown?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Guntown typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 260 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Guntown?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Guntown sees about 260 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 8, about 225 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Guntown?
The federal record around Guntown shows 157 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (86), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Guntown?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Guntown's scale — its 8a band and its 260-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Guntown'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 Guntown’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Guntown's own scale — its own ~260-day season between 28°F freezes, the 4,070 acres it covers and 157 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Guntown's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Guntown's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 22 and the ~260-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 157 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Guntown, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Guntown's boundary and the 4,070 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~260-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Guntown's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Guntown's 4,070 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lee County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lee 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 Lee County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Guntown's 4,070 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Guntown you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 4,070 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Guntown-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiGuntown sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.