Decherd, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Decherd, 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 Decherd 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 Decherd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Decherd — the short answer
Decherd, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 3K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 20
- 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
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 3K 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 Decherd's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Decherd's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Decherd
Each reading below is measured for Decherd itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDecherd runs about 233 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
MeasuredDecherd 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 Decherd is in
Decherd sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Decherd's own centroid rather than borrowed from Franklin County.
What Grows in Decherd
Every plant below cleared Decherd's own zone 7b and its 233-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Decherd?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 20; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 20 (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. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
What's on the federal record near Decherd
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Decherd. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- MONARCH SCREEN PRINTINGBrownfields · 1700 ft
- Decherd Jiffy MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Franklin ApparelUnderground Storage Tanks · 1900 ft
- Fr:N -02Nitrate · 1900 ft
- CAROUSEL SCREEN PRINTINGBrownfields · 2300 ft
- Pelham HatcheryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- B And M Paving Co., Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Downtown Station #4456Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- R And B GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- T T HollandUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Larry Bar-b-queUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Kern's Bakery WarehouseUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Decherd'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 Decherd.
Total Sites
192
within ~10 miles of Decherd
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
8 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Decherd
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Decherd
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Decherd, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Decherd — PFAS (6 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (134 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.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Decherd
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 Decherd average
Your land is one point inside Decherd
Everything above resolves to Decherd as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 3K 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 city 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 Decherd Average
Decherd Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Decherd
- ●One soil character for all of Decherd
- ●Frost dates read at Decherd's scale: Mar 20 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Decherd's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Decherd
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Decherd, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Decherd averages can't show:
We read public map data around Decherd — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Decherd average
How we know this about Decherd
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Decherd’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Decherd
When does frost risk typically end in Decherd?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Decherd typically lands around Mar 20, 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 10.
When is the first frost in Decherd?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Decherd 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 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Decherd?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Decherd sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 20 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 10 to Oct 25, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Decherd?
The federal record around Decherd shows 192 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (134), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.3 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.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Decherd?
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 Decherd's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Decherd'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 Decherd’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Decherd's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 3,084 acres it covers and 192 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Decherd's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Decherd's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 20 and Nov 8 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 192 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Decherd, the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Decherd's boundary and the 3,084 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~233-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Decherd's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Decherd's 3,084 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Franklin County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Franklin 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 Franklin County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Decherd's 3,084 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Decherd you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 3,084 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.3 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 Decherd-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Wider growing context
What grows across TennesseeDecherd sits outside our named growing regions, so Tennessee as a whole is its closest context here.
Nearby growing guides