Brownsville, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
The conditions favor cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Brownsville, 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 Brownsville 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 Brownsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Brownsville — the short answer
Brownsville, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 247 days between hard freezes, across 6K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~247
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 6K 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 8a is Brownsville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Brownsville's 247-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Brownsville
Each reading below is measured for Brownsville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredBrownsville runs about 247 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
MeasuredBrownsville sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Brownsville is in
Brownsville sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Brownsville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Haywood County.
What Grows in Brownsville
Every plant below cleared Brownsville's own zone 8a and its 247-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Brownsville?
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 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Brownsville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Brownsville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Propane WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 450 ft
- Federal Compress And Whse CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- Water Plant GeneratorUnderground Storage Tanks · 500 ft
- HA:G-4Nitrate · 1100 ft
- Hooper Oil Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- No. 5 WellUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Kerr-mcgee #1215070Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Super D DrugsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- HA:G-015Nitrate · 1900 ft
- A C Pirtle, Union 76 S SUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Haywood County Board of EducationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- New Brownsville ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Brownsville'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 Brownsville.
Total Sites
124
within ~10 miles of Brownsville
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
10 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Brownsville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Brownsville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Brownsville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Brownsville — Toxics Release Inventory (10 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (82 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 Brownsville
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 Brownsville average
Your land is one point inside Brownsville
Everything above resolves to Brownsville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 6K 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 Brownsville Average
Brownsville Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Brownsville
- ●One soil character for all of Brownsville
- ●Frost dates read at Brownsville's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Brownsville's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Brownsville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Brownsville, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Brownsville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Brownsville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Brownsville average
How we know this about Brownsville
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 Brownsville’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 Brownsville
When does frost risk typically end in Brownsville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Brownsville typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Brownsville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Brownsville typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 247 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Brownsville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Brownsville sees about 247 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 1, about 212 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Brownsville?
The federal record around Brownsville shows 124 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), 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 Brownsville?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Brownsville's scale — its 8a band and its 247-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Brownsville'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 Brownsville’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Brownsville's own scale — its own ~247-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,310 acres it covers and 124 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Brownsville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Brownsville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 15 and the ~247-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 124 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Brownsville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Brownsville's boundary and the 6,310 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~247-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Brownsville's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Brownsville's 6,310 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Haywood County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Haywood 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 Haywood County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Brownsville's 6,310 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Brownsville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,310 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 Brownsville-wide figureread your own land →