Strayhorn, 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 Strayhorn, 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 Strayhorn 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 Strayhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Strayhorn — the short answer
Strayhorn, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 250 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- Tate County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- Tate County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~250
- Tate County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Tate County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Strayhorn's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Strayhorn's 250-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Strayhorn
Each reading below is measured for Strayhorn itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsStrayhorn runs about 250 days between hard freezes (read from Tate County, the closest normal to Strayhorn) — 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
MeasuredStrayhorn 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 Strayhorn is in
Strayhorn sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Strayhorn's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tate County.
What Grows in Strayhorn
Every plant below cleared Strayhorn's own zone 8a and its 250-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Strayhorn?
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 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — 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.
Documented around Strayhorn
Survey cells within 31 miles of Strayhorn checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 210 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Strayhorn
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Strayhorn. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hudspeth's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- 137K0001 TATENitrate · 3.2 mi
- Turley BrothersUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 137E0005 TATENitrate · 3.8 mi
- Arkabutla Microwave StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- J D MciverUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Former Walnut Lake StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Allison FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- 137F0001 TATENitrate · 4.5 mi
- Tate County School Bus ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- 137A0079 TATENitrate · 5.4 mi
- 137A0009 TATENitrate · 5.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Strayhorn'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 Strayhorn.
Total Sites
62
within ~10 miles of Strayhorn
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Strayhorn
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Strayhorn
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Strayhorn, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 20 sites within ~10 miles of Strayhorn. 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 Strayhorn
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 Strayhorn average
Your land is one point inside Strayhorn
Everything above resolves to Strayhorn as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 2K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Tate 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 Strayhorn Average
Strayhorn Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Strayhorn
- ●One soil character for all of Strayhorn
- ●Frost dates read at Strayhorn's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Strayhorn's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Strayhorn
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Strayhorn, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Strayhorn averages can't show:
We read public map data around Strayhorn — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Strayhorn average
How we know this about Strayhorn
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 Tate 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 Strayhorn
When does frost risk typically end in Strayhorn?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Strayhorn typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Strayhorn?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Strayhorn typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 250 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Strayhorn?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Strayhorn sees about 250 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Oct 31, about 215 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Strayhorn?
The federal record around Strayhorn shows 62 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (38), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Strayhorn?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Strayhorn's scale — its 8a band and its 250-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Strayhorn'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 Strayhorn’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Strayhorn's own scale — the 2,282 acres it covers and 62 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Strayhorn's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 62 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Strayhorn, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Strayhorn's boundary and the 2,282 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~250-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Strayhorn's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Strayhorn checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Strayhorn has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Tate County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Strayhorn's 2,282 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tate County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tate 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 Tate County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Strayhorn's 2,282 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Strayhorn you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,282 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Strayhorn-wide figureread your own land →
More in Mississippi
Wider growing context
What grows across MississippiStrayhorn sits outside our named growing regions, so Mississippi as a whole is its closest context here.