Meigs County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Meigs County lies within Appalachia — a regional growing area with its own character.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Meigs County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Meigs 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 Meigs County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Meigs County — the short answer
Meigs County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 227 days between hard freezes, across 125K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~227
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 125K 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 7b is Meigs County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Meigs County's 227-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Meigs County
Across a year, Meigs County accumulates about 4,132 growing degree days above 50°F, about 19 more than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 53 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 2,002 hours below 45°F, 57 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 Meigs County
Across Meigs County, the ground is predominantly Ultisols, where Fullerton, Pailo, and Coile are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a gravelly silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.7, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Ultisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
16%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Meigs County
The USDA soil survey maps 66% of Meigs County as well drained — but another 24% drains differently: 14% moderately well drained, 7% somewhat excessively drained.
Fullerton is the most extensive named soil at 20% of mapped acres, then Pailo (8%) and Coile (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 Meigs County
Each reading below is measured for Meigs 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 Meigs 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 Meigs County runs about pH 5.3–5.7, 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
MeasuredMeigs County runs about 227 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
MeasuredMeigs County 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 Meigs County is in
Meigs County sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Meigs County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Meigs County's own USDA zone 7b and its own 227-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 Meigs County?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 8 — 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 Meigs County
- monarch butterfly1 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Meigs County
USGS estimates 9,903 lb of Glyphosate on Meigs County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Atrazine (2,414 lb) and 2,4-d (2,405 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 Meigs County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Meigs County — 63 documented sites across 5 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities. Active industrial facilities reporting chemical releases to air, water, and land.
The federal record across Meigs 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 Meigs County
Closest first, across Meigs County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- DECATUR WATER DEPTPFAS · 0.9 mi
- Me:H-001Nitrate · 1.1 mi
- Decatur Saw Shop*Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Littleton's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Cash-N- CarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- CYMER LLCToxics Release Inventory · 1.4 mi
- CYMER LLCBrownfields · 1.4 mi
- Valley Mart no. 18Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Kangaroo Express No. 3595Underground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Decatur HealthcareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Volunteer Electric CoopUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Decatur Service CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Meigs 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 Meigs County.
Total Sites
63
across Meigs County
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
6 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
across Meigs County
Severity Distribution
across Meigs County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Meigs County, two things run higher than the national average across Meigs County — Toxics Release Inventory (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (45 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
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 Meigs 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 Meigs County average
Your land is one point inside Meigs County
Everything above resolves to Meigs County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 125K 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 Meigs County Average
Meigs County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Meigs County
- ●One soil character for all of Meigs County
- ●Frost dates read at Meigs County's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Meigs County's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Meigs County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Meigs County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Meigs County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Meigs County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Meigs County average
How we know this about Meigs 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 Meigs County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Meigs County
When does frost risk typically end in Meigs County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Meigs County typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
How long is the growing season in Meigs County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Meigs County sees about 227 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 25, about 192 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Meigs County?
The federal record around Meigs County shows 63 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (45), the nearest PFAS record about 0.9 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 Meigs County's scale — its 7b band and its 227-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Meigs 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 Meigs County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Meigs County's own scale — its own ~227-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 63 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Meigs County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Meigs County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~227-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Meigs CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 63 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest PFAS record about 0.9 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Meigs County's boundary and the 124,886 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~227-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Meigs County sitting wholly inside the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Meigs County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Meigs 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 Meigs County — the ~227 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 Meigs County's 124,886 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 63 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 Meigs Countyread your own land →