Wiggins, Mississippi, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Wiggins, 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 Wiggins 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 Wiggins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Wiggins — the short answer
Wiggins, Mississippi: USDA zone 8b, about 290 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Feb 15
- Stone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Dec 2
- Stone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- Days between freezes
- ~290
- Stone County normal — NOAA 1991–2020, nearest to this town
- City area
- 7K 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 Stone County’s — the closest measured record, labelled as such rather than passed off as local.
Hardiness Zone Range
Zone 8b is Wiggins's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Wiggins's 290-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Wiggins
Each reading below is measured for Wiggins itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
From county recordsWiggins runs about 290 days between hard freezes (read from Stone County, the closest normal to Wiggins) — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredWiggins sits in USDA hardiness zone 8b.
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 Wiggins is in
Wiggins sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Wiggins's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stone County.
What Grows in Wiggins
Every plant below cleared Wiggins's own zone 8b and its 290-day season. Each card opens that plant's Mississippi profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Wiggins?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Jan 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Feb 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Dec 2 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. In a climate this gentle, “too late” hardly applies — the question becomes which crops prefer the cooler months ahead.
What's on the federal record near Wiggins
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Wiggins. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Firth's GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 250 ft
- Bst Wiggins Co 71125Underground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Charles E DanzeyUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- City Of WigginsUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Burger HutUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- BaggettsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Keith's Superstore #160Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Jr Food #118Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Big Level GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Stone County Sheriff's DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Jiffy MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- Breland Ready MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Wiggins'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 Wiggins.
Total Sites
122
within ~10 miles of Wiggins
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Wiggins
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Wiggins
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Wiggins, PFAS runs higher than the national average — 3 sites within ~10 miles of Wiggins. Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Wiggins
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 Wiggins average
Your land is one point inside Wiggins
Everything above resolves to Wiggins as a whole — one PHZM band, read across 7K acres, with hard-freeze dates borrowed from Stone County’s record because no 30-year normal resolves at this city’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 city 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 Wiggins Average
Wiggins Average
- ●USDA Zones 8b, averaged across Wiggins
- ●One soil character for all of Wiggins
- ●Frost dates read at Wiggins's scale: Feb 15 to Dec 2
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Wiggins's 8b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Wiggins
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Wiggins, Mississippi — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Wiggins averages can't show:
We read public map data around Wiggins — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Wiggins average
How we know this about Wiggins
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Stone 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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Wiggins
When does frost risk typically end in Wiggins?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Wiggins typically lands around Feb 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 Mar 8.
When is the first frost in Wiggins?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Wiggins typically arrives around Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 18, so the watching starts about Nov 2 — about 290 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Wiggins?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Wiggins sees about 290 frost-free days — roughly Feb 15 through Dec 2, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 8 to Nov 18, about 255 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Wiggins?
The federal record around Wiggins is a meaningful one — 122 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (70), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wiggins?
From about Nov 2 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 Dec 2 (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 Dec 2. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Wiggins's scale — its 8b band and its 290-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Wiggins'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 Wiggins’s own scale
5 of the readings below were taken at Wiggins's own scale — the 6,880 acres it covers and 122 documented sites around it; 5 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Wiggins's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8bUSDA PHZM 2023
- 122 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Wiggins, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Wiggins's boundary and the 6,880 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8b and a ~290-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Wiggins's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- The 28°F hard-freeze dates — Wiggins has no normal of its own, so its county's is the closest measured readfrom Stone County
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Wiggins's 6,880 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stone County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stone 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 Stone County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Wiggins's 6,880 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Wiggins you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,880 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Wiggins-wide figureread your own land →
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