Benton, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Benton, 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 Benton 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 Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Benton — the short answer
Benton, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of town.
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 7b is Benton's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Benton's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Benton
Each reading below is measured for Benton itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBenton runs about 238 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
MeasuredBenton 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 Benton is in
Benton sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Benton's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Polk County is mostly Blue Ridge. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Benton
Every plant below cleared Benton's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Benton?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 12 — 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 Benton
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Benton. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Circle K Store no. 4703637Underground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Benton Town HallUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Hiawassee Land CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Polk CountyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Tennessee DotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Cherokee National ForestUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- BENTON OIL SERVICE INCToxics Release Inventory · 2300 ft
- Cotton's PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Sweetwater Valley Oil CompanyUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Polk County Road Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- RIVERSIDE DAIRYCAFO · 1.0 mi
- Po:M-010Nitrate · 1.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Benton'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 Benton.
Total Sites
103
within ~10 miles of Benton
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Benton
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Benton
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Benton, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Benton — CAFO (4 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Benton
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 Benton average
Your land is one point inside Benton
Everything above resolves to Benton 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 Benton Average
Benton Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Benton
- ●One soil character for all of Benton
- ●Frost dates read at Benton's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Benton's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Benton
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Benton, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Benton averages can't show:
We read public map data around Benton — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Benton average
How we know this about Benton
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 Benton’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 Benton
When does frost risk typically end in Benton?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Benton 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 Benton?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Benton typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Benton?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Benton sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 29, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Benton?
The federal record around Benton shows 103 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (69), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Benton?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Benton's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Benton'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 Benton’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Benton's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,941 acres it covers and 103 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Benton's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Benton's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 12 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 103 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Benton, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Benton's boundary and the 1,941 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Benton sits in the Ridge and Valley — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Benton's 1,941 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Benton's 1,941 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Benton you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,941 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 Benton-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Growing regions
Nearby growing guides