Ardmore, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Ardmore, 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 Ardmore 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 Ardmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Ardmore — the short answer
Ardmore, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Ardmore's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Ardmore's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Ardmore
Each reading below is measured for Ardmore itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredArdmore 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
MeasuredArdmore 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 Ardmore is in
Ardmore sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Ardmore's own centroid rather than borrowed from Giles County.
What Grows in Ardmore
Every plant below cleared Ardmore's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Ardmore?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Ardmore
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Ardmore. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- WOLVERINE TUBEBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- WOLVERINE TUBEToxics Release Inventory · 0.5 mi
- Ardmore 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- H P MaxUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Nove's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Shady Lawn Truck StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- I 65 And Hwy 31Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Joe RoperUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- SOUTHERN CUSTOM MARBLEBrownfields · 0.9 mi
- UNIVERSAL OIL PRODUCTS WOLVERINE DIVSuperfund · 0.9 mi
- Well A 13 345929086510001 Limestone County AlNitrate · 0.9 mi
- CLAYTON HOMES - ARDMOREToxics Release Inventory · 0.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Ardmore'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 Ardmore.
Total Sites
105
within ~10 miles of Ardmore
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Ardmore
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Ardmore
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Ardmore, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Ardmore — CAFO (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (67 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Ardmore
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 Ardmore average
Your land is one point inside Ardmore
Everything above resolves to Ardmore as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 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 Ardmore Average
Ardmore Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Ardmore
- ●One soil character for all of Ardmore
- ●Frost dates read at Ardmore's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Ardmore's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Ardmore
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Ardmore, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Ardmore averages can't show:
We read public map data around Ardmore — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Ardmore average
How we know this about Ardmore
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 Ardmore’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 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 Ardmore
When does frost risk typically end in Ardmore?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Ardmore typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Ardmore?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Ardmore typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Ardmore?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Ardmore sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 27, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Ardmore?
The federal record around Ardmore is a meaningful one — 105 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles 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 Ardmore?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Ardmore's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Ardmore'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 Ardmore’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Ardmore's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,007 acres it covers and 105 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Ardmore's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Ardmore's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 10 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 105 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Ardmore, the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Ardmore's boundary and the 3,007 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Ardmore's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Ardmore's 3,007 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Giles County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Giles County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Giles County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Ardmore's 3,007 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Ardmore you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,007 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.5 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 Ardmore-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeArdmore sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.