Sardis, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Sardis, 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 Sardis 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 Sardis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Sardis — the short answer
Sardis, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Panola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Panola County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- Panola 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 Panola County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Sardis's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Sardis's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Sardis
Each reading below is measured for Sardis itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsSardis runs about 245 days between hard freezes (read from Panola County, the closest normal to Sardis) — 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
MeasuredSardis 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 Sardis is in
Sardis sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Sardis's own centroid rather than borrowed from Panola County.
What Grows in Sardis
Every plant below cleared Sardis's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Sardis?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Sardis
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Sardis. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bst Sardis 75129Underground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Sardis Gun ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- White Deli & GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Express Wash CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- City Of SardisUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Sardis Speedy ServeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- 107G0001 PANOLANitrate · 1900 ft
- 107G0009 PANOLANitrate · 2200 ft
- Dollar General # 667Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Tri Lakes BP MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Circle K # 2721531Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- C W White Inc Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Sardis'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 Sardis.
Total Sites
208
within ~10 miles of Sardis
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Sardis
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Sardis
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Sardis, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Sardis — Toxics Release Inventory (15 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (141 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Sardis
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 Sardis average
Your land is one point inside Sardis
Everything above resolves to Sardis as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 1K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Panola 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 Sardis Average
Sardis Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Sardis
- ●One soil character for all of Sardis
- ●Frost dates read at Sardis's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Sardis's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Sardis
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Sardis, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Sardis averages can't show:
We read public map data around Sardis — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Sardis average
How we know this about Sardis
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 Panola 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 Sardis
When does frost risk typically end in Sardis?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Sardis 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 Sardis?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Sardis typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Sardis?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Sardis sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Oct 30, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Sardis?
The federal record around Sardis is a meaningful one — 208 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sardis?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Sardis's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Sardis'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 Sardis’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Sardis's own scale — the 1,279 acres it covers and 208 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Sardis's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 208 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Sardis, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Sardis's boundary and the 1,279 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Sardis's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Sardis has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Panola County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Sardis's 1,279 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Panola County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Panola 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 Panola County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Sardis's 1,279 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Sardis you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,279 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Sardis-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiSardis sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides