Bartlett, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Bartlett, 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 Bartlett 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 Bartlett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bartlett — the short answer
Bartlett, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 262 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~262
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Bartlett's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bartlett's 262-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bartlett
Each reading below is measured for Bartlett itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBartlett runs about 262 days between hard freezes — 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
MeasuredBartlett 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 Bartlett is in
Bartlett sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bartlett's own centroid rather than borrowed from Shelby County.
What Grows in Bartlett
Every plant below cleared Bartlett's own zone 8a and its 262-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bartlett?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 7; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 7 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — 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.
Documented around Bartlett
Survey cells within 31 miles of Bartlett checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 179 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bartlett
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bartlett. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rapp Construction Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 300 ft
- Wilkinson Petrol Services IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Sh:Q-167 UR-30Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Sh:Q-167-R UR-30RNitrate · 2000 ft
- Tiger Mart no. 7Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Aaa Grounds Maintenance IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- KROGER #456-25Brownfields · 0.7 mi
- Kroger Fuel Center #456Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- GUARDIAN MID-SOUTH PHARMACYBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- EllendaleUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Tiger Mart No. 3Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- E-1Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bartlett'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 Bartlett.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bartlett
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bartlett
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
Check your specific parcel in Bartlett
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 Bartlett average
Your land is one point inside Bartlett
Everything above resolves to Bartlett as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 Bartlett Average
Bartlett Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Bartlett
- ●One soil character for all of Bartlett
- ●Frost dates read at Bartlett's scale: Mar 7 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bartlett's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bartlett
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bartlett, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bartlett averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bartlett — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bartlett average
How we know this about Bartlett
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 Bartlett’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 Bartlett
When does frost risk typically end in Bartlett?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bartlett typically lands around Mar 7, 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 28.
When is the first frost in Bartlett?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bartlett typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 262 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bartlett?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bartlett sees about 262 frost-free days — roughly Mar 7 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 28 to Nov 10, about 227 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bartlett?
The federal record around Bartlett is a meaningful one — 1,063 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (628), 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 Bartlett?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bartlett's scale — its 8a band and its 262-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bartlett'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 Bartlett’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bartlett's own scale — its own ~262-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,672 acres it covers and 1,063 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bartlett's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bartlett's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 7 and Nov 24 and the ~262-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,063 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bartlett, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bartlett's boundary and the 20,672 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~262-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bartlett's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Bartlett checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bartlett's 20,672 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Shelby County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Shelby 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 Shelby County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bartlett's 20,672 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bartlett you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,672 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 Bartlett-wide figureread your own land →