Bethel Springs, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Bethel Springs, 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 Bethel Springs 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 Bethel Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bethel Springs — the short answer
Bethel Springs, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 234 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~234
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 1K 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 Bethel Springs's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bethel Springs's 234-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bethel Springs
Each reading below is measured for Bethel Springs itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBethel Springs runs about 234 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
MeasuredBethel Springs 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 Bethel Springs is in
Bethel Springs sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bethel Springs's own centroid rather than borrowed from McNairy County.
What Grows in Bethel Springs
Every plant below cleared Bethel Springs's own zone 7b and its 234-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bethel Springs?
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 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Bethel Springs
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bethel Springs. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Bethel Springs Ele SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- MN:L-055Nitrate · 2300 ft
- Westvaco CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Willard RolandUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Mcnairy GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Gee's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Murray's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Tennessee Dept Of TransporationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Selmer 66Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- TENN DEPT OF TRANSPORTATION-DISTRICT 43Brownfields · 0.6 mi
- TDOTUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- SHANNON GROUP, KOLPACK DIVToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bethel Springs'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 Bethel Springs.
Total Sites
107
within ~10 miles of Bethel Springs
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bethel Springs
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bethel Springs
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bethel Springs, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bethel Springs — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (67 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bethel Springs
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 Bethel Springs average
Your land is one point inside Bethel Springs
Everything above resolves to Bethel Springs as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Bethel Springs Average
Bethel Springs Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bethel Springs
- ●One soil character for all of Bethel Springs
- ●Frost dates read at Bethel Springs's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bethel Springs's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bethel Springs
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bethel Springs, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bethel Springs averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bethel Springs — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bethel Springs average
How we know this about Bethel Springs
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 Bethel Springs’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 Bethel Springs
When does frost risk typically end in Bethel Springs?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel Springs typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Bethel Springs?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bethel Springs typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 234 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bethel Springs?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bethel Springs sees about 234 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 28, about 199 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bethel Springs?
The federal record around Bethel Springs shows 107 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (67), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles 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 Bethel Springs?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bethel Springs's scale — its 7b band and its 234-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bethel Springs'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 Bethel Springs’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Bethel Springs's own scale — its own ~234-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,429 acres it covers and 107 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bethel Springs's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bethel Springs's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 11 and the ~234-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 107 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bethel Springs, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bethel Springs's boundary and the 1,429 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~234-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bethel Springs's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bethel Springs's 1,429 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McNairy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McNairy 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 McNairy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bethel Springs's 1,429 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bethel Springs you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,429 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 Bethel Springs-wide figureread your own land →