Kearney Park, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Kearney Park, 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 Kearney Park 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 Kearney Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Kearney Park — the short answer
Kearney Park, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 272 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 24
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 23
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~272
- Madison County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Madison County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Kearney Park's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Kearney Park's 272-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Kearney Park
Each reading below is measured for Kearney Park itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsKearney Park runs about 272 days between hard freezes (read from Madison County, the closest normal to Kearney Park) — 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
MeasuredKearney Park 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 Kearney Park is in
Kearney Park sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Kearney Park's own centroid rather than borrowed from Madison County.
What Grows in Kearney Park
Every plant below cleared Kearney Park's own zone 8b and its 272-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Kearney Park?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 24 (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. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
What's on the federal record near Kearney Park
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Kearney Park. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- RYAN KINCSES PLANT, NUMBER 2Brownfields · 550 ft
- Regal Ware IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Kearney Industrial ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Southern Vital DataplexUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- DickersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 089K0005 MADISONNitrate · 2.0 mi
- Hastee TasteeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Double T IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 089R0025 MADISONNitrate · 3.2 mi
- 089R0002 MADISONNitrate · 3.2 mi
- Madison County SchoolsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.2 mi
- 089R0001 MADISONNitrate · 3.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Kearney Park'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 Kearney Park.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Kearney Park
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Kearney Park
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Kearney Park, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Kearney Park — Underground Storage Tanks (43 sites) and Nitrate (18 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Kearney Park
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 Kearney Park average
Your land is one point inside Kearney Park
Everything above resolves to Kearney Park as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Madison 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 Kearney Park Average
Kearney Park Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Kearney Park
- ●One soil character for all of Kearney Park
- ●Frost dates read at Kearney Park's scale: Feb 24 to Nov 23
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Kearney Park's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Kearney Park
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Kearney Park, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Kearney Park averages can't show:
We read public map data around Kearney Park — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Kearney Park average
How we know this about Kearney Park
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 Madison 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 Kearney Park
When does frost risk typically end in Kearney Park?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Kearney Park typically lands around Feb 24, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Kearney Park?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Kearney Park 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 272 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Kearney Park?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Kearney Park sees about 272 frost-free days — roughly Feb 24 through Nov 23, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 17 to Nov 9, about 237 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Kearney Park?
The federal record around Kearney Park shows 65 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (43), the nearest Brownfields 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 Kearney Park?
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 Kearney Park's scale — its 8b band and its 272-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Kearney Park'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 Kearney Park’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Kearney Park's own scale — the 1,719 acres it covers and 65 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Kearney Park's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 65 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Kearney Park, the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Kearney Park's boundary and the 1,719 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~272-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Kearney Park's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Kearney Park has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Madison County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Kearney Park's 1,719 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Kearney Park's 1,719 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Kearney Park you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,719 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields 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 Kearney Park-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiKearney Park sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides