Waterford, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, 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 Waterford, 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 Waterford 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 Waterford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Waterford — the short answer
Waterford, Mississippi: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 622 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 622 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 7b is Waterford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Waterford's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Waterford
Each reading below is measured for Waterford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredWaterford runs about 236 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
MeasuredWaterford sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b.
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 Waterford is in
Waterford sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Waterford's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Marshall County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Waterford
Every plant below cleared Waterford's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Waterford?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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 Waterford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Waterford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Palmer's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Shaws GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Tom Pitts GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Marrion Brothers GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.6 mi
- 093T0003 MARSHALLNitrate · 4.0 mi
- Holly Springs Motor CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Galena Microwave StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.3 mi
- Sports CorralUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- Cousin's ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Murphy USA # 7573Underground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- Keels GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.6 mi
- WAL-MART SUPERCENTER # 303Brownfields · 6.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Waterford'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 Waterford.
Total Sites
91
within ~10 miles of Waterford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
7 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Waterford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Waterford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Waterford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Waterford — Toxics Release Inventory (7 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (66 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Waterford
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 Waterford average
Your land is one point inside Waterford
Everything above resolves to Waterford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 622 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 Waterford Average
Waterford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Waterford
- ●One soil character for all of Waterford
- ●Frost dates read at Waterford's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Waterford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Waterford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Waterford, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Waterford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Waterford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Waterford average
How we know this about Waterford
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 Waterford’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 Waterford
When does frost risk typically end in Waterford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Waterford typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Waterford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Waterford typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Waterford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Waterford sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 26, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Waterford?
The federal record around Waterford shows 91 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (66), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Waterford?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Waterford's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Waterford'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 Waterford’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Waterford's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 622 acres it covers and 91 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Waterford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Waterford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 9 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 91 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Waterford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Waterford's boundary and the 622 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Waterford sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Waterford's 622 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Marshall County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Marshall 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 Marshall County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Waterford's 622 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Waterford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 622 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Waterford-wide figureread your own land →