Lauderdale County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Growers here do well with cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Lauderdale County lies within the West Tennessee (Gulf Coastal Plain / Loess Plains) — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Lauderdale County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lauderdale County — the short answer
Lauderdale County, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 257 days between hard freezes, across 302K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~257
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 302K 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 8a is Lauderdale County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lauderdale County's 257-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Lauderdale County
Across a year, Lauderdale County accumulates about 4,624 growing degree days above 50°F, about 511 more than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 91 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.
Winter banks about 1,960 hours below 45°F, 99 fewer than the Tennessee middle of 2,059. Chill is what tells a fruit tree its dormancy is over, and it is set by climate rather than by anything you can build.
Grounded in PRISM Climate Group, Oregon State University — 1991–2020 monthly normals
Soil in Lauderdale County
Across Lauderdale County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Memphis, Commerce, and Loring are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.8–6.7, slightly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
26%
Hydric soils
15%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Lauderdale County
The USDA soil survey maps 35% of Lauderdale County as well drained — but another 56% drains differently: 23% somewhat poorly drained, 19% moderately well drained.
Memphis is the most extensive named soil at 31% of mapped acres, then Commerce (9%) and Loring (6%).
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 Lauderdale County
Each reading below is measured for Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County runs about pH 5.8–6.7, close to neutral.
This is the range most vegetables prefer — one correction you probably do not have to make, which is genuinely good news for a new bed.
Keep it there with compost rather than lime or sulfur, and only amend if your own soil test says otherwise.
USDA NRCS SSURGO
Season length
MeasuredLauderdale County runs about 257 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
MeasuredLauderdale County 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 Lauderdale County is in
Lauderdale County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (59%) and Mississippi Alluvial Plain (42%). 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 Lauderdale County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Lauderdale County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 257-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 Lauderdale County?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 21 — 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.
Documented around Lauderdale County
- Japanese beetle1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Lauderdale County
USGS estimates 105,598 lb of Glyphosate on Lauderdale County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (62,042 lb) and Dicamba (43,266 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 Lauderdale County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Lauderdale County — 161 documented sites across 6 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed). Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
There's a meaningful federal record across Lauderdale County — worth a look before you plant food, not a reason to hold back from growing. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. A soil test before new food beds is the sensible precaution here, and the map shows exactly which sites sit where, so you can see what's actually near you.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Lauderdale County
Closest first, across Lauderdale County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- LAUDERDALE CO WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.1 mi
- HALLS WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.1 mi
- RIPLEY WATER SYSTEMPFAS · 1.1 mi
- ARP One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Wakefield GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lauderdale County Water SystemsUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Tennessee DotUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Robert J ReviereUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Dillard Henning GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Lauderdale Community HospitalUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Agriculture Dept Of Usda Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
- Ripley ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County.
Total Sites
161
across Lauderdale County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Lauderdale County
Severity Distribution
across Lauderdale County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lauderdale County, two things run higher than the national average across Lauderdale County — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County average
Your land is one point inside Lauderdale County
Everything above resolves to Lauderdale County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 302K 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 Lauderdale County Average
Lauderdale County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lauderdale County
- ●One soil character for all of Lauderdale County
- ●Frost dates read at Lauderdale County's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 21
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lauderdale County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Lauderdale County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lauderdale County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lauderdale County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lauderdale County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lauderdale County average
How we know this about Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Lauderdale County
When does frost risk typically end in Lauderdale County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lauderdale County typically lands around Mar 9, 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 Mar 30.
How long is the growing season in Lauderdale County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lauderdale County sees about 257 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 21, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 7, about 222 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lauderdale County?
The federal record around Lauderdale County is a meaningful one — 161 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (130), the nearest PFAS record about 1.1 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.
Everything above is measured at Lauderdale County's scale — its 8a band and its 257-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Lauderdale County's own scale — its own ~257-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 161 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lauderdale County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lauderdale County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~257-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Lauderdale CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 161 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 1.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Lauderdale County's boundary and the 302,013 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~257-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Lauderdale County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Lauderdale County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Lauderdale 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 Lauderdale County — the ~257 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 Lauderdale County's 302,013 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 161 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 Lauderdale Countyread your own land →