Childers Hill, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
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 Childers Hill, 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 Childers Hill 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 Childers Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Childers Hill — the short answer
Childers Hill, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 772 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 18
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 772 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 Childers Hill's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Childers Hill's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Childers Hill
Each reading below is measured for Childers Hill itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredChilders Hill 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
MeasuredChilders Hill 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 Childers Hill is in
Childers Hill sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Childers Hill's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardin County.
What Grows in Childers Hill
Every plant below cleared Childers Hill's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Childers Hill?
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 18; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 18 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 11 — 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 Childers Hill
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Childers Hill. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Marine SalesUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Packaging Corp Of America-counceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Dan's TexacoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Shortys Bait ShopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- South Side GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Tom Lillys MarineUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Counce Super SaverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 3 Way AmocoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- 3 Way CafeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- RBP Ontario LLC dba Shiloh One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- The County Line Kwik StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Childers Hill'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 Childers Hill.
Total Sites
115
within ~10 miles of Childers Hill
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Childers Hill
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Childers Hill
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Childers Hill, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Childers Hill — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (11 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Childers Hill
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 Childers Hill average
Your land is one point inside Childers Hill
Everything above resolves to Childers Hill as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 772 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 Childers Hill Average
Childers Hill Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Childers Hill
- ●One soil character for all of Childers Hill
- ●Frost dates read at Childers Hill's scale: Mar 18 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Childers Hill's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Childers Hill
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Childers Hill, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Childers Hill averages can't show:
We read public map data around Childers Hill — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Childers Hill average
How we know this about Childers Hill
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 Childers Hill’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 Childers Hill
When does frost risk typically end in Childers Hill?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Childers Hill typically lands around Mar 18, 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 8.
When is the first frost in Childers Hill?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Childers Hill typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Childers Hill?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Childers Hill sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 18 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 8 to Oct 28, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Childers Hill?
The federal record around Childers Hill is a meaningful one — 115 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (73), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Childers Hill?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Childers Hill's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Childers Hill'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 Childers Hill’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Childers Hill's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 772 acres it covers and 115 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Childers Hill's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Childers Hill's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 18 and Nov 11 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 115 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Childers Hill, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Childers Hill's boundary and the 772 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Childers Hill's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Childers Hill's 772 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardin 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 Hardin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Childers Hill's 772 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Childers Hill you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 772 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 2.8 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 Childers Hill-wide figureread your own land →