Darden, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Crops well matched to these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — though what thrives on any one site still turns on its specific soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Darden, no two yards are alike.
A low spot, a south-facing slope, or a stand of trees moves the frost date and sun across a single Darden lot. 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 Darden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Darden — the short answer
Darden, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 5K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 23
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 5K acres
- US Census TIGER/Line 2025
Every figure names the dataset it came from. Hard-freeze dates are this town’s own 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 Darden's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Darden's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Darden
Each reading below is measured for Darden itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDarden runs about 230 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
MeasuredDarden 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 Darden is in
Darden sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Darden's own centroid rather than borrowed from Henderson County.
What Grows in Darden
Every plant below cleared Darden's own zone 7b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Darden?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 23; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 23 (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. Here the season winds down slowly: late sowings, a real autumn harvest, and garlic in the ground before the first hard freeze.
What's on the federal record near Darden
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Darden. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Rick's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- HE:L-010Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Sunrise StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Henderson Co Highway's DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Former Reeds StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Anderson Bait*Underground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Frans GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- Fisher's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.3 mi
- T And B FisherUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.4 mi
- Ray Myracle StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Graves And Graves Construction IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.4 mi
- Patton BrosUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Darden'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 Darden.
Total Sites
179
within ~10 miles of Darden
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Darden
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Darden
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Darden, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Darden — Underground Storage Tanks (131 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (13 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Darden
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 Darden average
Your land is one point inside Darden
Everything above resolves to Darden as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 5K 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 town 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 local average.
Your Lot vs the Darden Average
Darden Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Darden
- ●One soil character for all of Darden
- ●Frost dates read at Darden's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Darden's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Darden
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Darden, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Darden averages can't show:
We read public map data around Darden — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Darden average
How we know this about Darden
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this town’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Darden’s own record; boundaries and acreage from US Census TIGER/Line 2025; the contamination records from the federal sources named in their beats above. Soil is not read at town grain anywhere on this page — there is no town-resolution survey in our data, which is why you will find no soil grid here rather than a statewide one wearing a local label. The resolution ledger below names every figure this page inherited.
Common questions about Darden
When does frost risk typically end in Darden?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Darden typically lands around Mar 23, 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 13.
When is the first frost in Darden?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Darden typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Darden?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Darden sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 25, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Darden?
The federal record around Darden is a meaningful one — 179 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (131), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Darden?
From about Oct 9 the job here turns from planting to protecting — the last start even a 30-day crop can finish. As the season closes around the first 28°F hard freeze near Nov 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals), three moves buy time: row cover or an old sheet over tender plants on still, clear nights; water the soil the afternoon before a freeze, so it holds warmth overnight; and harvest tomatoes, peppers and basil before Nov 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Darden's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Darden's numbers: we read soil, sun, drainage and frost at your exact address. Try it for 14 days — no card required.
What this page reads at Darden’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Darden's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 5,370 acres it covers and 179 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Darden's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Darden's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 8 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 179 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Darden, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Darden's boundary and the 5,370 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Darden's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Darden's 5,370 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Henderson County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Henderson County
- The growing challenges every Tennessee grower plans around — written at state scale, so they stay on the state guidefrom Tennessee
- Butterfly and beetle records, and the farmland pesticide estimate — all published county-widefrom Henderson County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Darden's 5,370 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Darden you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 5,370 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out, measured from the town centrehow we read the record →
- Where cold air settles, which slopes face the sun, and which way the wind runs on your own ground — measured at your address, and averaged away by any Darden-wide figureread your own land →