Tula, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Tula, 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 Tula 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 Tula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Tula — the short answer
Tula, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 242 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~242
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 Tula's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Tula's 242-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Tula
Each reading below is measured for Tula itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredTula runs about 242 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
MeasuredTula 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 Tula is in
Tula sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Tula's own centroid rather than borrowed from Lafayette County.
What Grows in Tula
Every plant below cleared Tula's own zone 8a and its 242-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Tula?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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 Tula
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Tula. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Tula GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Karr's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Jim's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- A & B GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- 071L0005 LAFAYETTENitrate · 3.9 mi
- W B WhiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
- Big V'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.9 mi
- Emmitt WilliamsUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.0 mi
- 071M0004 LAFAYETTENitrate · 7.1 mi
- Hantz GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.5 mi
- 115A0013 PONTOTOCNitrate · 7.8 mi
- Belk's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Tula'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 Tula.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Tula
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Tula
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Tula, Nitrate runs higher than the national average — 10 sites within ~10 miles of Tula. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Tula
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 Tula average
Your land is one point inside Tula
Everything above resolves to Tula as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Tula Average
Tula Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Tula
- ●One soil character for all of Tula
- ●Frost dates read at Tula's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Tula's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Tula
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Tula, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Tula averages can't show:
We read public map data around Tula — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Tula average
How we know this about Tula
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 Tula’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 Tula
When does frost risk typically end in Tula?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Tula typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Tula?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Tula typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 242 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Tula?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Tula sees about 242 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Oct 29, about 207 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Tula?
The federal record around Tula shows 28 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (16), 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 Tula?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Tula's scale — its 8a band and its 242-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Tula'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 Tula’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Tula's own scale — its own ~242-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,437 acres it covers and 28 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Tula's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Tula's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 12 and the ~242-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 28 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Tula, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Tula's boundary and the 2,437 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~242-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Tula's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Tula's 2,437 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Lafayette County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Lafayette 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 Lafayette County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Tula's 2,437 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Tula you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,437 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 Tula-wide figureread your own land →