Cottage Grove, 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.
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 Cottage Grove, 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 Cottage Grove 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 Cottage Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Cottage Grove — the short answer
Cottage Grove, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 109 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 109 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 Cottage Grove's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Cottage Grove's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Cottage Grove
Each reading below is measured for Cottage Grove itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredCottage Grove runs about 236 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
MeasuredCottage Grove 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 Cottage Grove is in
Cottage Grove sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Cottage Grove's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henry County.
What Grows in Cottage Grove
Every plant below cleared Cottage Grove's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Cottage Grove?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 22; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 22 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
What's on the federal record near Cottage Grove
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Cottage Grove. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HY:N-002Nitrate · 300 ft
- The Mill RestaurantUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- HY:N-001Nitrate · 500 ft
- Soloways MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- Anr Pipeline Co Cottage Grove CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- HY:N-007Nitrate · 2300 ft
- ANR PIPELINE COMPANY, COTTAGE GROVE COMPRESSOR STATIONBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Hy:N-015Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Henry Farmers Co-OpUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- HIDDEN ACRES LLC D/B/A HIDDEN ACRES 2CAFO · 4.0 mi
- MICHAEL SUMNERS DAIRYCAFO · 4.1 mi
- YODER FINISHERSCAFO · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Cottage Grove'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 Cottage Grove.
Total Sites
96
within ~10 miles of Cottage Grove
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Cottage Grove
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Cottage Grove
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Cottage Grove, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Cottage Grove — CAFO (6 sites) and Nitrate (40 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Cottage Grove
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 Cottage Grove average
Your land is one point inside Cottage Grove
Everything above resolves to Cottage Grove as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 109 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 Cottage Grove Average
Cottage Grove Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Cottage Grove
- ●One soil character for all of Cottage Grove
- ●Frost dates read at Cottage Grove's scale: Mar 22 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Cottage Grove's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Cottage Grove
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Cottage Grove, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Cottage Grove averages can't show:
We read public map data around Cottage Grove — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Cottage Grove average
How we know this about Cottage Grove
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 Cottage Grove’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 Cottage Grove
When does frost risk typically end in Cottage Grove?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Cottage Grove typically lands around Mar 22, 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 12.
When is the first frost in Cottage Grove?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Cottage Grove typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Cottage Grove?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Cottage Grove sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 22 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 12 to Oct 30, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Cottage Grove?
The federal record around Cottage Grove shows 96 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Nitrate 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 Cottage Grove?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Cottage Grove's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Cottage Grove'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 Cottage Grove’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Cottage Grove's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 109 acres it covers and 96 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Cottage Grove's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Cottage Grove's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 22 and Nov 13 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 96 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Cottage Grove, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Cottage Grove's boundary and the 109 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Cottage Grove's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Cottage Grove's 109 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henry County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henry 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 Henry County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Cottage Grove's 109 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Cottage Grove you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 109 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate 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 Cottage Grove-wide figureread your own land →