Shelby County, in Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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.
Shelby 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
Shelby County holds more than one microclimate.
Soils and elevations shift across Shelby 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 Shelby County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Shelby County — the short answer
Shelby County, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 266 days between hard freezes, across 482K acres.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 4
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 25
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- Days between freezes
- ~266
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F
- County area
- 482K 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 Shelby County's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Shelby County's 266-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Heat and winter chill in Shelby County
Across a year, Shelby County accumulates about 5,010 growing degree days above 50°F, about 897 more than the middle Tennessee county — ahead of every other Tennessee county. 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 1,702 hours below 45°F, 357 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 Shelby County
Across Shelby County, the ground is predominantly Alfisols, where Memphis, Grenada, and Falaya are the most extensive named soil series. The soil is generally well drained with a silt loam surface. Topsoil pH runs about 5.3–5.8, strongly acidic. Rainfall drains through hydrologic group B soils.
Soil order
Alfisols
Drainage
Well drained
Prime farmland
56%
Hydric soils
12%
Soil still varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
How the ground varies across Shelby County
The USDA soil survey maps 32% of Shelby County as well drained — but another 62% drains differently: 29% moderately well drained, 21% somewhat poorly drained.
Memphis is the most extensive named soil at 21% of mapped acres, then Grenada (18%) and Falaya (17%).
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 Shelby County
Each reading below is measured for Shelby 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 Shelby 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 Shelby County runs about pH 5.3–5.8, 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
MeasuredShelby County runs about 266 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredShelby 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 Shelby County is in
Shelby County spans 2 EPA Level III ecoregions — Mississippi Valley Loess Plains (86%) and Mississippi Alluvial Plain (14%). 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 Shelby County
We scored all 1,086 plants against Shelby County's own USDA zone 8a and its own 266-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 Shelby 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 4; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 4 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 25 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Shelby County
Survey cells within 31 miles of Shelby County checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 184 miles off. What to watch for.
- Japanese beetle18 documented records
- monarch butterfly65 documented records
Sighting records, so they follow observers as much as insects.
What gets applied to farmland in Shelby County
USGS estimates 41,854 lb of Glyphosate on Shelby County farmland in 2019, its largest by weight, ahead of Metolachlor & Metolachlor-s (23,294 lb) and Dicamba (17,912 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 Shelby County — and how to grow with it.
We checked the federal record across Shelby County — 3,578 documented sites across 7 of the 9 source types we track.
The most significant on record: 68 Superfund sites. Sites tracked in EPA's Superfund program — from assessment-stage CERCLIS entries to confirmed National Priorities List cleanup sites.
Shelby County carries one of the heavier federal records we track — and that's not a verdict on your yard. Proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis: nothing here says any particular parcel is affected. It does earn one concrete step — before food beds go in the ground, a professional soil test tells you exactly what you're working with, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well almost anywhere in the meantime.
Sources: EPA, USGS — 1.8M documented sites tracked nationwide across 9 federal source types.
What's on the federal record near Shelby County
Closest first, across Shelby County. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CADILLAC OF MEMPHISBrownfields · 550 ft
- Cadillac Of MemphisUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- Super Lo GasUnderground Storage Tanks · 550 ft
- SAM'S CLUB #8292Brownfields · 550 ft
- MEMPHIS ENGRAVING CO. INCBrownfields · 550 ft
- Circle K Store no. 4703668Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- JIM KERAS NISSAN, INC.Brownfields · 800 ft
- Jim Keras Nissan IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Reed Keras BuickUnderground Storage Tanks · 1300 ft
- JIM KERAS BUICK COBrownfields · 1300 ft
- HILL SERVICES IND & ENV SERVICESBrownfields · 1500 ft
- FOSTER PONTIAC BODY SHOPBrownfields · 1500 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Shelby 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 Shelby County.
Sources Checked
across Shelby County
Severity Distribution
across Shelby County
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Shelby County, two things run higher than the national average across Shelby County — Superfund (68 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (235 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Shelby 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 Shelby County average
Your land is one point inside Shelby County
Everything above resolves to Shelby County as a whole — one PHZM band and one county frost record, read across 482K 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 Shelby County Average
Shelby County Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Shelby County
- ●One soil character for all of Shelby County
- ●Frost dates read at Shelby County's scale: Mar 4 to Nov 25
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Shelby County's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your parcel in Shelby County
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Shelby County, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Shelby County averages can't show:
We read public map data around Shelby County — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Shelby County average
How we know this about Shelby 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 Shelby County carries no record of its own, the figure is inherited and labelled — the resolution ledger below names each.
Common questions about Shelby County
When does frost risk typically end in Shelby County?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Shelby County typically lands around Mar 4, 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 25.
How long is the growing season in Shelby County?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Shelby County sees about 266 frost-free days — roughly Mar 4 through Nov 25, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 25 to Nov 11, about 231 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Shelby County?
The federal record around Shelby County runs heavier than most — 3,578 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (2,283), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
Everything above is measured at Shelby County's scale — its 8a band and its 266-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Shelby 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 Shelby County’s own scale
9 of the readings below were taken at Shelby County's own scale — its own ~266-day span between 28°F freezes, the 3 most extensive soil series mapped here and 3,578 documented sites inside its boundary; one is borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Shelby County's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Shelby County's own 28°F hard-freeze dates and its ~266-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- The soil order, drainage, surface pH, and the 3 most extensive named soil series mapped in Shelby CountyUSDA NRCS SSURGO
- 3,578 documented contamination sites inside the county boundary, distance-sorted from its center — the closest Brownfields record about 0.1 miles outFederal environmental registers
- Shelby County's boundary and the 481,775 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~266-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The 2 ecoregions Shelby County spans, Mississippi Valley Loess Plains the largestUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Open occurrence records documented in Shelby County for 2 tracked speciesGBIF derived datasets (CC0 / CC BY 4.0)
- Which agricultural compounds go onto Shelby 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 Shelby County — the ~266 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 Shelby County's 481,775 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which of those 3,578 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 Shelby Countyread your own land →