Bransford, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Bransford, 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 Bransford 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 Bransford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Bransford — the short answer
Bransford, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 228 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~228
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 3K 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 Bransford's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bransford's 228-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bransford
Each reading below is measured for Bransford itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBransford runs about 228 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
MeasuredBransford 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 Bransford is in
Bransford sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bransford's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumner County.
What Grows in Bransford
Every plant below cleared Bransford's own zone 7b and its 228-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bransford?
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 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 9 — 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.
Documented around Bransford
Spotted lanternfly documented 23 miles from Bransford, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bransford
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bransford. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Dons MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Bethpage StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Tri-county Electric Mem CorpUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.4 mi
- Mandrell's Family MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Dutch CreekUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Borders Grocery ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Danny's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- C&H TRUCK & SALVAGEBrownfields · 3.8 mi
- Sudden Service no. 73Underground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Westmoreland Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Mapco Express #1115Underground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- City Of WestmorelandUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bransford'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 Bransford.
Total Sites
73
within ~10 miles of Bransford
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bransford
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bransford
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bransford, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bransford — PFAS (5 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (58 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Bransford
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 Bransford average
Your land is one point inside Bransford
Everything above resolves to Bransford as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 Bransford Average
Bransford Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bransford
- ●One soil character for all of Bransford
- ●Frost dates read at Bransford's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 9
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bransford's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bransford
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bransford, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bransford averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bransford — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bransford average
How we know this about Bransford
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 Bransford’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 Bransford
When does frost risk typically end in Bransford?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bransford typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Bransford?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bransford typically arrives around Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 26, so the watching starts about Oct 10 — about 228 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bransford?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bransford sees about 228 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 9, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 26, about 193 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bransford?
The federal record around Bransford shows 73 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (58), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Bransford?
From about Oct 10 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 9 (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 9. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Bransford's scale — its 7b band and its 228-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bransford'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 Bransford’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bransford's own scale — its own ~228-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,579 acres it covers and 73 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bransford's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bransford's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 9 and the ~228-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 73 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bransford, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bransford's boundary and the 2,579 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~228-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bransford's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bransfordlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bransford's 2,579 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumner 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 Sumner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bransford's 2,579 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bransford you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,579 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Bransford-wide figureread your own land →
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