Bristol, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
On paper, cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Even in Bristol, 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 Bristol 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 Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Bristol — the short answer
Bristol, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 220 days between hard freezes, across 21K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- 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
- ~220
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 21K 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 Bristol's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Bristol's 220-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Bristol
Each reading below is measured for Bristol itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBristol runs about 220 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
MeasuredBristol 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 Bristol is in
Bristol sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Bristol's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sullivan County.
What Grows in Bristol
Every plant below cleared Bristol's own zone 7b and its 220-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Bristol?
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 Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
Documented around Bristol
Spotted lanternfly documented 2 miles from Bristol, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Bristol
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Bristol. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Food City Gas N Go #617Underground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Former Union 76 StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- ASPEN DENTALBrownfields · 1400 ft
- Plaza Exxon no. 51059Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WALLACE IMPORTS OF BRISTOL, INC.Brownfields · 1600 ft
- Albers Drug CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Hop - In Food Store #132Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Sam Snead Tire And RepairUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Kmart Corp #7442Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- HILLS STORES COMPANYBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Ron HumbleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- LOWE'S OF SOUTH BRISTOL #2591Brownfields · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Bristol'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 Bristol.
Total Sites
541
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Bristol
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Bristol, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Bristol — Toxics Release Inventory (39 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (368 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around 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 Bristol
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 Bristol average
Your land is one point inside Bristol
Everything above resolves to Bristol as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 21K 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 city 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 Bristol Average
Bristol Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Bristol
- ●One soil character for all of Bristol
- ●Frost dates read at Bristol's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 4
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Bristol's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Bristol
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Bristol, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Bristol averages can't show:
We read public map data around Bristol — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Bristol average
How we know this about Bristol
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Bristol’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Bristol
When does frost risk typically end in Bristol?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Bristol?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Bristol 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 220 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Bristol?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Bristol sees about 220 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 4, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 21, about 185 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Bristol?
The federal record around Bristol is a meaningful one — 541 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (368), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bristol?
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 Bristol's scale — its 7b band and its 220-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Bristol'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 Bristol’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Bristol's own scale — its own ~220-day season between 28°F freezes, the 20,934 acres it covers and 541 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Bristol's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Bristol's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 4 and the ~220-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 541 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Bristol, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Bristol's boundary and the 20,934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~220-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Bristol's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Bristollydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Bristol's 20,934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sullivan County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sullivan 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 Sullivan County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Bristol's 20,934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Bristol you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 20,934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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 Bristol-wide figureread your own land →
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