Baxter, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, hazelnut, 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 Baxter, 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 Baxter 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 Baxter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Baxter — the short answer
Baxter, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 30
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 2K 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 7a is Baxter's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Baxter's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Baxter
Each reading below is measured for Baxter itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBaxter runs about 219 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
MeasuredBaxter sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Baxter is in
Baxter sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Baxter's own centroid rather than borrowed from Putnam County.
What Grows in Baxter
Every plant below cleared Baxter's own zone 7a and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Baxter?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 2; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 30 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 4 — 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 Baxter
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Baxter. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Highway 56 ShellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Lewis C. Jackson, Jr.*Underground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Chestney's Corner Gen. StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Twin Lakes Telephone CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Leona's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Cole's Country RoadsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Carlos Nash GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Jess Bowman ConstructionUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Everett AllenUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Delaney'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Roy LukeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Town Of Baxter TnUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Baxter'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 Baxter.
Total Sites
298
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
18 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Baxter
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Baxter, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Baxter — Underground Storage Tanks (228 sites) and PFAS (3 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Baxter
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 Baxter average
Your land is one point inside Baxter
Everything above resolves to Baxter as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Baxter Average
Baxter Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Baxter
- ●One soil character for all of Baxter
- ●Frost dates read at Baxter's scale: Mar 30 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Baxter's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Baxter
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Baxter, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Baxter averages can't show:
We read public map data around Baxter — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Baxter average
How we know this about Baxter
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 Baxter’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 Baxter
When does frost risk typically end in Baxter?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Baxter typically lands around Mar 30, 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 20.
When is the first frost in Baxter?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Baxter typically arrives around Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 21, so the watching starts about Oct 5 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Baxter?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Baxter sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 30 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 20 to Oct 21, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Baxter?
The federal record around Baxter is a meaningful one — 298 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (228), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Baxter?
From about Oct 5 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 4 (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 4. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Baxter's scale — its 7a band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Baxter'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 Baxter’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Baxter's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,013 acres it covers and 298 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Baxter's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Baxter's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 30 and Nov 4 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 298 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Baxter, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Baxter's boundary and the 2,013 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Baxter's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Baxter's 2,013 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Putnam County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Putnam 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 Putnam County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Baxter's 2,013 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Baxter you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,013 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Baxter-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeBaxter sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides