Horn Lake, 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 Horn Lake, 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 Horn Lake 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 Horn Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Horn Lake — the short answer
Horn Lake, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 265 days between hard freezes, across 10K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~265
- DeSoto County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 10K 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 DeSoto County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Horn Lake's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Horn Lake's 265-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Horn Lake
Each reading below is measured for Horn Lake itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsHorn Lake runs about 265 days between hard freezes (read from DeSoto County, the closest normal to Horn Lake) — 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
MeasuredHorn Lake 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 Horn Lake is in
Horn Lake sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Horn Lake's own centroid rather than borrowed from DeSoto County.
What Grows in Horn Lake
Every plant below cleared Horn Lake's own zone 8a and its 265-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Horn Lake?
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 23 — 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 Horn Lake
Survey cells within 31 miles of Horn Lake checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 197 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Horn Lake
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Horn Lake. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF HORN LAKEPFAS · 500 ft
- Donnie's Deli & Grocery #2Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Time SaverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Elmer MasseyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Fred's Fueling Station #6500Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RITE AID NUMBER 7398Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- On The Way GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- DOVER ELEVATOR SYSTEMS INCToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
- Dover Elevator SystemsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Donnie's ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- Exxon R/S #5-0262Underground Storage Tanks · 0.9 mi
- KROGER #499-25Brownfields · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Horn Lake'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 Horn Lake.
Total Sites
1,220
within ~10 miles of Horn Lake
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Horn Lake
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Horn Lake
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Horn Lake, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Horn Lake — Toxics Release Inventory (84 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (761 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Horn Lake
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 Horn Lake average
Your land is one point inside Horn Lake
Everything above resolves to Horn Lake as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 10K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from DeSoto County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Horn Lake Average
Horn Lake Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Horn Lake
- ●One soil character for all of Horn Lake
- ●Frost dates read at Horn Lake's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Horn Lake's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Horn Lake
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Horn Lake, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Horn Lake averages can't show:
We read public map data around Horn Lake — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Horn Lake average
How we know this about Horn Lake
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at DeSoto 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Horn Lake
When does frost risk typically end in Horn Lake?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Horn Lake 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.
When is the first frost in Horn Lake?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Horn Lake typically arrives around Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 9, so the watching starts about Oct 24 — about 265 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Horn Lake?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Horn Lake sees about 265 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 9, about 230 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Horn Lake?
The federal record around Horn Lake is a meaningful one — 1,220 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (761), the nearest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile 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 Horn Lake?
From about Oct 24 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 23 (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 23. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Horn Lake's scale — its 8a band and its 265-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Horn Lake'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 Horn Lake’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Horn Lake's own scale — the 10,257 acres it covers and 1,220 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Horn Lake's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 1,220 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Horn Lake, the closest PFAS record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Horn Lake's boundary and the 10,257 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~265-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Horn Lake's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Horn Lake checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Horn Lake has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom DeSoto County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Horn Lake's 10,257 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom DeSoto County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom DeSoto 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 DeSoto County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Horn Lake's 10,257 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Horn Lake you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,257 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS 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 Horn Lake-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiHorn Lake sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.