Lena, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lena, 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 Lena 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 Lena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lena — the short answer
Lena, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 264 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 3
- Leake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- Leake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~264
- Leake County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Leake County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Lena's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lena's 264-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lena
Each reading below is measured for Lena itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsLena runs about 264 days between hard freezes (read from Leake County, the closest normal to Lena) — 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
MeasuredLena 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 Lena is in
Lena sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lena's own centroid rather than borrowed from Leake County.
What Grows in Lena
Every plant below cleared Lena's own zone 8b and its 264-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lena?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 22 — 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 Lena
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lena. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fran's CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Michael's 13 LLCUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- 079O0008 LEAKENitrate · 2100 ft
- Larry Raines StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Rawson's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.8 mi
- Cole's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- O'bannon GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- 079O0013 LEAKENitrate · 3.4 mi
- TOYA MOSS FARMCAFO · 3.4 mi
- 123A0001 SCOTTNitrate · 4.3 mi
- Midway Grocery & RecreationUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.9 mi
- Moss Pearl River GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lena'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 Lena.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Lena
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 concentrated animal feeding operations
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lena
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lena
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lena, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lena — CAFO (3 sites) and Nitrate (22 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Lena
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 Lena average
Your land is one point inside Lena
Everything above resolves to Lena as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Leake 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 Lena Average
Lena Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Lena
- ●One soil character for all of Lena
- ●Frost dates read at Lena's scale: Mar 3 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lena's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lena
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lena, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lena averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lena — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lena average
How we know this about Lena
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 Leake 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 Lena
When does frost risk typically end in Lena?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lena 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 Lena?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lena 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 264 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lena?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lena sees about 264 frost-free days — roughly Mar 3 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 24 to Nov 8, about 229 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lena?
The federal record around Lena shows 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Lena?
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 Lena's scale — its 8b band and its 264-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lena'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 Lena’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Lena's own scale — the 1,063 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lena's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lena, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lena's boundary and the 1,063 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~264-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lena's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Lena has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Leake County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Lena's 1,063 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Leake County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Leake 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 Leake County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lena's 1,063 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lena you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,063 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Lena-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiLena sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides