Paden, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Paden, 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 Paden 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 Paden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Paden — the short answer
Paden, Mississippi: USDA zone 7b, about 232 days between hard freezes, across 576 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~232
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 576 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 7b is Paden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Paden's 232-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Paden
Each reading below is measured for Paden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredPaden runs about 232 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
MeasuredPaden sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Paden is in
Paden sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Paden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tishomingo County.
What Grows in Paden
Every plant below cleared Paden's own zone 7b and its 232-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Paden?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Paden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Paden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CITY OF FULTONPFAS · 0.6 mi
- 141J0071 TISHOMINGONitrate · 0.8 mi
- 141J0072 TISHOMINGONitrate · 0.8 mi
- 141J0027 TISHOMINGONitrate · 0.9 mi
- 141J0040 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.3 mi
- 141J0041 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.4 mi
- 141J0029 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.4 mi
- 141J0042 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.5 mi
- 141J0030 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.5 mi
- 141J0043 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.5 mi
- 141J0031 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.6 mi
- 141J0044 TISHOMINGONitrate · 1.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Paden'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 Paden.
Total Sites
166
within ~10 miles of Paden
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Paden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Paden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Paden, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 134 sites within ~10 miles of Paden. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Paden
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 Paden average
Your land is one point inside Paden
Everything above resolves to Paden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 576 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 Paden Average
Paden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Paden
- ●One soil character for all of Paden
- ●Frost dates read at Paden's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Paden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Paden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Paden, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Paden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Paden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Paden average
How we know this about Paden
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 Paden’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 Paden
When does frost risk typically end in Paden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Paden typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Paden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Paden typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 232 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Paden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Paden sees about 232 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 27, about 197 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Paden?
The federal record around Paden shows 166 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (134), the nearest PFAS record about 0.6 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 Paden?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Paden's scale — its 7b band and its 232-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Paden'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 Paden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Paden's own scale — its own ~232-day season between 28°F freezes, the 576 acres it covers and 166 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Paden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Paden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 10 and the ~232-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 166 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Paden, the closest PFAS record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Paden's boundary and the 576 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~232-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Paden's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Paden's 576 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tishomingo County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tishomingo 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 Tishomingo County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Paden's 576 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Paden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 576 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest PFAS record about 0.6 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 Paden-wide figureread your own land →