Van Vleet, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Van Vleet, 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 Van Vleet 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 Van Vleet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Van Vleet — the short answer
Van Vleet, Mississippi: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 493 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- Chickasaw County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Town area
- 493 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 Chickasaw County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8a is Van Vleet's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Van Vleet's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Van Vleet
Each reading below is measured for Van Vleet itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsVan Vleet runs about 245 days between hard freezes (read from Chickasaw County, the closest normal to Van Vleet) — 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
MeasuredVan Vleet 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 Van Vleet is in
Van Vleet sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Van Vleet's own centroid rather than borrowed from Chickasaw County.
What Grows in Van Vleet
Every plant below cleared Van Vleet'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 Van Vleet?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. 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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Van Vleet
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Van Vleet. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- H B Carter StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Usda Forest ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- G & S GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 017F0020 CHICKASAWNitrate · 2.4 mi
- Wayne Earnest GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- 017B0001 CHICKASAWNitrate · 5.1 mi
- 017B0024 CHICKASAWNitrate · 5.8 mi
- MILLER TIMBERToxics Release Inventory · 6.0 mi
- Pop's Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.3 mi
- Clemons GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
- Houlka Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.8 mi
- Wages GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 7.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Van Vleet'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 Van Vleet.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Van Vleet
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Van Vleet
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Van Vleet
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Van Vleet, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Van Vleet — Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites) and Nitrate (28 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.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Van Vleet
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 Van Vleet average
Your land is one point inside Van Vleet
Everything above resolves to Van Vleet as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 493 acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Chickasaw 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 Van Vleet Average
Van Vleet Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Van Vleet
- ●One soil character for all of Van Vleet
- ●Frost dates read at Van Vleet's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Van Vleet's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Van Vleet
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Van Vleet, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Van Vleet averages can't show:
We read public map data around Van Vleet — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Van Vleet average
How we know this about Van Vleet
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 Chickasaw 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 Van Vleet
When does frost risk typically end in Van Vleet?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Van Vleet 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 Van Vleet?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Van Vleet 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 Van Vleet?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Van Vleet 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 Van Vleet?
The federal record around Van Vleet shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), 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 Van Vleet?
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 Van Vleet's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Van Vleet'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 Van Vleet’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Van Vleet's own scale — the 493 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Van Vleet's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Van Vleet, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.6 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Van Vleet's boundary and the 493 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 Van Vleet's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Van Vleet has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Chickasaw County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Van Vleet's 493 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Chickasaw County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Chickasaw 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 Chickasaw County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Van Vleet's 493 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Van Vleet you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 493 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 Van Vleet-wide figureread your own land →
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