Myrtle, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Myrtle, 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 Myrtle 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 Myrtle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Myrtle — the short answer
Myrtle, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 243 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~243
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Myrtle's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Myrtle's 243-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Myrtle
Each reading below is measured for Myrtle itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredMyrtle runs about 243 days between hard freezes — a long growing season.
There is slack for succession plantings and slow-finishing crops: many vegetables can be sown twice, and the heat-lovers have time to ripen fully.
Plan a second sowing of quick crops after the first comes out, and use the fall window most gardeners let sit idle.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredMyrtle 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 Myrtle is in
Myrtle sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Myrtle's own centroid rather than borrowed from Union County.
What Grows in Myrtle
Every plant below cleared Myrtle's own zone 8a and its 243-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Myrtle?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Myrtle
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Myrtle. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- 145B0017 UNIONNitrate · 1100 ft
- Myrtle Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Myrtle Attendance CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Squeaky CleanUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Myrtle GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Gadd's Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Gadd Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
- Hickory Flat Radio Relay StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Charles Simmons West End GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Mcmillan Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.0 mi
- LAHER PRODUCTION PROPERTYSuperfund · 4.4 mi
- HMC TECHNOLOGIESBrownfields · 5.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Myrtle'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 Myrtle.
Total Sites
178
within ~10 miles of Myrtle
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Myrtle
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Myrtle
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Myrtle, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 113 sites within ~10 miles of Myrtle. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Myrtle
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 Myrtle average
Your land is one point inside Myrtle
Everything above resolves to Myrtle as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Myrtle Average
Myrtle Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Myrtle
- ●One soil character for all of Myrtle
- ●Frost dates read at Myrtle's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Myrtle's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Myrtle
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Myrtle, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Myrtle averages can't show:
We read public map data around Myrtle — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Myrtle average
How we know this about Myrtle
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 Myrtle’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 Myrtle
When does frost risk typically end in Myrtle?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Myrtle typically lands around Mar 13, 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 Apr 3.
When is the first frost in Myrtle?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Myrtle typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 243 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Myrtle?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Myrtle sees about 243 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 28, about 208 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Myrtle?
The federal record around Myrtle is a meaningful one — 178 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (113), the nearest Nitrate 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 Myrtle?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Myrtle's scale — its 8a band and its 243-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Myrtle'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 Myrtle’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Myrtle's own scale — its own ~243-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,334 acres it covers and 178 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Myrtle's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Myrtle's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 11 and the ~243-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 178 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Myrtle, the closest Nitrate record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Myrtle's boundary and the 1,334 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~243-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Myrtle's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Myrtle's 1,334 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Union County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Union 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 Union County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Myrtle's 1,334 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Myrtle you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,334 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Myrtle-wide figureread your own land →