Robertson County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, hazelnut, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Grounded in USDA PHZM 2023 · Growable Ground suitability scoring · NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Robertson County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Robertson 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 Robertson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Robertson County — the short answer
Robertson County, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 226 days between hard freezes, across 305K acres.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 7
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~226
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 305K 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 Robertson County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Robertson County's 226-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Robertson County
Across a year, Robertson County accumulates about 4,130 growing degree days above 50°F, about 17 more than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of 52 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 2,273 hours below 45°F, 214 more 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 Robertson County
Across Robertson County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Sengtown, Pembroke, and Mountview are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.5–6.3, moderately acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
42%
Hydric soils
2%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Robertson County
The USDA soil survey maps 63% of Robertson County as well drained — but another 35% drains differently: 26% moderately well drained, 5% somewhat excessively drained.
Sengtown is the most extensive named soil at 24% of mapped acres, then Pembroke (13%) and Mountview (11%).
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 Robertson County
Each reading below is measured for Robertson 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 Robertson 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 Robertson County runs about pH 5.5–6.3, 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
MeasuredRobertson County runs about 226 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
MeasuredRobertson 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 Robertson County is in
Robertson County sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. One consistent ecological setting across the whole county.
What Grows in Robertson County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Robertson County's own USDA zone 7a and its own 226-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 Robertson County?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 7 — 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.
Documented around Robertson County
Spotted lanternfly documented 27 miles from Robertson County, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
- monarch butterfly4 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Robertson County
USGS estimates 218,843 lb of Glyphosate on Robertson County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (86,933 lb) and Metolachlor-s (81,981 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 Robertson County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Robertson County — 214 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 1 Superfund site (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 Robertson 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 Robertson County
Closest first, across Robertson County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Robertson Cty Highway Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Daily's #8041Underground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Keith Circle SteelUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- HOGE MOTOR COMPANYBrownfields · 0.8 mi
- Coca Cola Bottling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- D And B Shop RiteUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Leftrick UpholsteryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Robertson Co Ambulance ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Robco Materials, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Long's Car CareUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Longs 66Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Sudden Service no. 36Underground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Robertson 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 Robertson County.
Total Sites
214
across Robertson County
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
across Robertson County
Severity Distribution
across Robertson County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Robertson County, two things run higher than the national average across Robertson County — PFAS (5 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (19 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Robertson 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 Robertson County average
Your land is one point inside Robertson County
Everything above resolves to Robertson County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 305K 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 Robertson County Average
Robertson County Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Robertson County
- ●One soil character for all of Robertson County
- ●Frost dates read at Robertson County's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 7
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Robertson County's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Robertson County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Robertson County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Robertson County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Robertson County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Robertson County average
How we know this about Robertson 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 Robertson County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Robertson County
When does frost risk typically end in Robertson County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Robertson 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 Robertson County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Robertson County sees about 226 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 7, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 24, about 191 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Robertson County?
The federal record around Robertson County is a meaningful one — 214 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (141), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 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 Robertson County's scale — its 7a band and its 226-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Robertson 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 Robertson County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Robertson County's own scale — its own ~226-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 214 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Robertson County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Robertson County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~226-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Robertson CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 214 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.7 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Robertson County's boundary and the 304,855 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~226-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Robertson County sitting wholly inside the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Robertson County for a tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Robertson 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 Robertson County — the ~226 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 Robertson County's 304,855 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 214 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 Robertson Countyread your own land →