Big Rock, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
On paper, cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Big Rock, 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 Big Rock 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 Big Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Big Rock — the short answer
Big Rock, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 14
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- 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 7a is Big Rock's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Big Rock's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Big Rock
Each reading below is measured for Big Rock itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBig Rock 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
MeasuredBig Rock 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 Big Rock is in
Big Rock sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Big Rock's own centroid rather than borrowed from Stewart County.
What Grows in Big Rock
Every plant below cleared Big Rock's own zone 7a and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Big Rock?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 14 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Big Rock
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Big Rock. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dover Ready MixUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- St:M-063Nitrate · 1.4 mi
- Dean Wallace MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Papa RockUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Lakeland Bait and TackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.5 mi
- Dean's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Dollar General 12381Underground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Jim's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Bev's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- JT's Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- J. T's Bait AndtackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.8 mi
- CROSS CREEKS NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGEBrownfields · 6.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Big Rock'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 Big Rock.
Total Sites
53
within ~10 miles of Big Rock
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
1 Toxics Release Inventory facility
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Big Rock
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Big Rock
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Big Rock, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 45 sites within ~10 miles of Big Rock. 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.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Big Rock
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 Big Rock average
Your land is one point inside Big Rock
Everything above resolves to Big Rock 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 Big Rock Average
Big Rock Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Big Rock
- ●One soil character for all of Big Rock
- ●Frost dates read at Big Rock's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 14
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Big Rock's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Big Rock
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Big Rock, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Big Rock averages can't show:
We read public map data around Big Rock — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Big Rock average
How we know this about Big Rock
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 Big Rock’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 Big Rock
When does frost risk typically end in Big Rock?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Big Rock typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Big Rock?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Big Rock typically arrives around Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 31, so the watching starts about Oct 15 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Big Rock?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Big Rock sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 14, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 31, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Big Rock?
The federal record around Big Rock shows 53 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Big Rock?
From about Oct 15 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 14 (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 14. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Big Rock's scale — its 7a band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Big Rock'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 Big Rock’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Big Rock's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,101 acres it covers and 53 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Big Rock's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Big Rock's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 14 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 53 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Big Rock, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Big Rock's boundary and the 1,101 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Big Rock's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Big Rock's 1,101 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Stewart County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Stewart 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 Stewart County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Big Rock's 1,101 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Big Rock you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,101 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.1 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 Big Rock-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeBig Rock sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides