Charlotte, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Charlotte, 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 Charlotte 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 Charlotte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Charlotte — the short answer
Charlotte, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 231 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~231
- 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 Charlotte's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Charlotte's 231-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Charlotte
Each reading below is measured for Charlotte itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCharlotte runs about 231 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
MeasuredCharlotte 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 Charlotte is in
Charlotte sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Charlotte's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dickson County.
What Grows in Charlotte
Every plant below cleared Charlotte's own zone 7b and its 231-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Charlotte?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 24; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 24 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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 Charlotte
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Charlotte. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Eubank's Asphalt Paving Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Charlotte Middle SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Charlotte Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- GENE'S BODY SHOP,LLCBrownfields · 0.6 mi
- Sessler's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Eubank PavingUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Doziers Boat Dock And Restaurant*Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Randal 48 MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Duke's MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Wally's Quick MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Fast Stop 4Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Love's Travel Stop No. 369Underground Storage Tanks · 2.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Charlotte'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 Charlotte.
Total Sites
193
within ~10 miles of Charlotte
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Charlotte
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Charlotte
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Charlotte, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Charlotte — Toxics Release Inventory (18 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (139 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Charlotte
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 Charlotte average
Your land is one point inside Charlotte
Everything above resolves to Charlotte 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 Charlotte Average
Charlotte Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Charlotte
- ●One soil character for all of Charlotte
- ●Frost dates read at Charlotte's scale: Mar 24 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Charlotte's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Charlotte
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Charlotte, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Charlotte averages can't show:
We read public map data around Charlotte — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Charlotte average
How we know this about Charlotte
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 Charlotte’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 Charlotte
When does frost risk typically end in Charlotte?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Charlotte typically lands around Mar 24, 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 14.
When is the first frost in Charlotte?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Charlotte typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 231 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Charlotte?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Charlotte sees about 231 frost-free days — roughly Mar 24 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 14 to Oct 27, about 196 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Charlotte?
The federal record around Charlotte is a meaningful one — 193 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (139), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Charlotte?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Charlotte's scale — its 7b band and its 231-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Charlotte'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 Charlotte’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Charlotte's own scale — its own ~231-day season between 28°F freezes, the 2,597 acres it covers and 193 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Charlotte's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Charlotte's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 24 and Nov 10 and the ~231-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 193 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Charlotte, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Charlotte's boundary and the 2,597 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~231-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Charlotte's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Charlotte's 2,597 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dickson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dickson 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 Dickson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Charlotte's 2,597 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Charlotte you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 2,597 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Charlotte-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeCharlotte sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides