Rena Lara, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Rena Lara, 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 Rena Lara 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 Rena Lara — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Rena Lara — the short answer
Rena Lara, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 275 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 25
- Coahoma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 27
- Coahoma County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~275
- Coahoma 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 Coahoma County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Rena Lara's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Rena Lara's 275-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Rena Lara
Each reading below is measured for Rena Lara itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsRena Lara runs about 275 days between hard freezes (read from Coahoma County, the closest normal to Rena Lara) — 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
MeasuredRena Lara 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 Rena Lara is in
Rena Lara sits in the Mississippi Alluvial Plain — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Rena Lara's own centroid rather than borrowed from Coahoma County.
What Grows in Rena Lara
Every plant below cleared Rena Lara's own zone 8b and its 275-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Rena Lara?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 28; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 25 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 27 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Rena Lara
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Rena Lara. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Great River Road Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Rico's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Mrs C GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 027G0002 COAHOMANitrate · 0.7 mi
- Sportsman GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- 027H0036 COAHOMANitrate · 3.4 mi
- 011A0020 BOLIVARNitrate · 3.7 mi
- Coahoma County School DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Sherard ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Hoff GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 011B0025 BOLIVARNitrate · 5.8 mi
- Jenkins Service Station & GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Rena Lara'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 Rena Lara.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Rena Lara
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Rena Lara
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Rena Lara, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 14 sites within ~10 miles of Rena Lara. 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 Rena Lara
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 Rena Lara average
Your land is one point inside Rena Lara
Everything above resolves to Rena Lara as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Coahoma 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 Rena Lara Average
Rena Lara Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Rena Lara
- ●One soil character for all of Rena Lara
- ●Frost dates read at Rena Lara's scale: Feb 25 to Nov 27
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Rena Lara's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Rena Lara
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Rena Lara, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Rena Lara averages can't show:
We read public map data around Rena Lara — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Rena Lara average
How we know this about Rena Lara
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 Coahoma 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 Rena Lara
When does frost risk typically end in Rena Lara?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Rena Lara typically lands around Feb 25, 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 18.
When is the first frost in Rena Lara?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Rena Lara typically arrives around Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 13, so the watching starts about Oct 28 — about 275 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Rena Lara?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Rena Lara sees about 275 frost-free days — roughly Feb 25 through Nov 27, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 18 to Nov 13, about 240 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Rena Lara?
The federal record around Rena Lara shows 30 documented sites, mostly Nitrate entries (14), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rena Lara?
From about Oct 28 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 27 (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 27. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Rena Lara's scale — its 8b band and its 275-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Rena Lara'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 Rena Lara’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Rena Lara's own scale — the 1,467 acres it covers and 30 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Rena Lara's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 30 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Rena Lara, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Rena Lara's boundary and the 1,467 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~275-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Rena Lara's own centroid, the Mississippi Alluvial PlainUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Rena Lara has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Coahoma County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Rena Lara's 1,467 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Coahoma County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Coahoma 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 Coahoma County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Rena Lara's 1,467 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Rena Lara you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,467 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Rena Lara-wide figureread your own land →
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