Grundy County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
On paper, cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens all suit these conditions — on the ground, soil, sun, and drainage make the final call.
Grundy County lies within the Cumberland Plateau and Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Grundy County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Grundy County, so your frost dates and drainage aren't the county average. 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 Grundy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Grundy County — the short answer
Grundy County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 208 days between hard freezes, across 231K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 31
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~208
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 231K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are county 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 7a is Grundy County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grundy County's 208-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat in Grundy County
Across a year, Grundy County accumulates about 3,340 growing degree days above 50°F, about 773 fewer than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 3 of Tennessee’s 95 counties. Degree days are the heat a crop actually gets to work with — more of them is more room to ripen a long-season crop before the freeze closes the window.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Grundy County
Across Grundy County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Beersheba, Bouldin, and Lily are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 4.6–5.0, very strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
24%
Hydric soils
1%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Grundy County
The USDA soil survey maps 88% of Grundy County as well drained — but another 11% drains differently: 7% somewhat excessively drained, 2% moderately well drained.
Beersheba is the most extensive named soil at 25% of mapped acres, then Bouldin (16%) and Lily (15%).
Which of them your own lot sits on is a parcel question, not a county one. Check your address for the survey at your boundary.
What this means for growing in Grundy County
Each reading below is measured for Grundy County itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Drainage
MeasuredThe dominant soils across Grundy County are well drained, in hydrologic group B — ground that drains quickly.
The upside is soil you can work early in spring and roots that never drown; the cost is that fast-draining ground dries out fast and leaches nutrients away before plants can use them.
Work in compost and mulch to hold moisture and feed, and water more often in short doses than deep and rarely.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Surface pH
MeasuredTopsoil across Grundy County runs about pH 4.6–5.0, on the acidic side.
Blueberries, potatoes, and rhododendrons thrive in it, but most vegetables start locking out nutrients below about pH 6.0 and grow pale and stunted no matter how much you feed them.
A measured lime application raises pH for the crops that need it — but test first, because the right rate depends on your own soil, not the county average.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredGrundy County runs about 208 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
MeasuredGrundy County sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Grundy County is in
Grundy County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Southwestern Appalachians (91%) and Interior Plateau (9%). Which one your land falls in changes what grows wild there and how the ground behaves, and a county-wide answer cannot tell you which.
What Grows in Grundy County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Grundy County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 208-day season between hard freezes, using the same matching engine that runs a full parcel report. These cleared both. Sun, soil pH and drainage vary lot by lot — those are the parcel questions below. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile.
Is it too late to plant in Grundy County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 31 — 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 gets applied to farmland in Grundy County
USGS estimates 4,510 lb of 2,4-d on Grundy County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (2,289 lb) and Metolachlor-s (1,681 lb).
Farmland across the whole county, not any one lot. Check your address for the site-by-site record.
Safe to Grow Here?
What the federal record shows across Grundy County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Grundy County — 94 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 mining sites (prospects, none worked). Historic and active mines that may leach heavy metals like arsenic, lead, and cadmium.
The federal record across Grundy County is a modest one — a typical footprint for a growing area. Nothing here calls for alarm; it's worth knowing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and each one on the map carries its type and location. If one turns out to be a near neighbor, a one-time soil test settles the question.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Grundy County
Closest first, across Grundy County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Seagroves ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Coalmont Tn 32139Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Coalmont Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- L and L MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Tennessee DotUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Big Creek Utility DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Southside MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Former Ruan Leasing CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Opal Nunley GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- SANDERS POULTRY FARMCAFO · 2.5 mi
- Corner MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Old Grundy County JailUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grundy County'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 Grundy County.
Total Sites
94
across Grundy County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
2 mining sites (prospects, none worked)
Sources Checked
across Grundy County
Severity Distribution
across Grundy County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grundy County, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 77 sites across Grundy County. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Grundy County
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 Grundy County average
Your land is one point inside Grundy County
Everything above resolves to Grundy County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 231K 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 county 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 county average.
Your Lot vs the Grundy County Average
Grundy County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Grundy County
- ●One soil character for all of Grundy County
- ●Frost dates read at Grundy County's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 31
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grundy County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Grundy County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grundy County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grundy County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grundy County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grundy County average
How we know this about Grundy County
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at county grain; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at this county’s own record where one resolves, and the labelled statewide window where none does; soils from the USDA NRCS SSURGO survey, area-weighted across the county’s own map units; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination and pesticide records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Where Grundy County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Grundy County
When does frost risk typically end in Grundy County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grundy County typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
How long is the growing season in Grundy County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grundy County sees about 208 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 31, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 17, about 173 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grundy County?
The federal record around Grundy County shows 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (77), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles 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.
Everything above is measured at Grundy County's scale — its 7a band and its 208-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grundy County's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
Will It Grow Here?
Zone fit is the first question — each answer below reads Tennessee's frost window, season length, and soil profile against the plant's real requirements.
What this page reads at Grundy County’s own scale
8 of the readings below were taken at Grundy County's own scale — its own ~208-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 94 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grundy County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grundy County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~208-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Grundy CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 94 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.5 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Grundy County's boundary and the 230,684 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~208-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Grundy County spans, Southwestern Appalachians the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Grundy County farmland, and roughly how muchUSGS NAWQA EPest county estimates
Inherited from a wider read
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
What this page can’t tell you
- How the season shifts across Grundy County — the ~208 days above is one reading at its centre; the 12 towns below each carry their owntowns in this county →
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grundy County's 230,684 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 94 documented sites actually reaches your soil — that needs your address, the wind, and the groundwater directionhow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — none of it survives being averaged over Grundy Countyread your own land →