Dunlap, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Dunlap, 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 Dunlap 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 Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Dunlap — the short answer
Dunlap, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 252 days between hard freezes, across 7K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 20
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~252
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 7K 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 8a is Dunlap's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Dunlap's 252-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Dunlap
Each reading below is measured for Dunlap itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredDunlap runs about 252 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
MeasuredDunlap 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 Dunlap is in
Dunlap sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Dunlap's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sequatchie County.
What Grows in Dunlap
Every plant below cleared Dunlap's own zone 8a and its 252-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Dunlap?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 13; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 13 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 20 — 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 Dunlap
Survey cells within 31 miles of Dunlap checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 78 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Dunlap
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Dunlap. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Down Town BPUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Mosley'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- B-quick MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Barker ChevyUnderground Storage Tanks · 1800 ft
- Edward C MccraverUnderground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- Sequatchie Co. Hwy Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 2500 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #1557Brownfields · 2500 ft
- O'REILLY AUTO PARTS STORE #1364Brownfields · 2600 ft
- Hi Tech Express no.7Underground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- TDOT, DISTRICT 22, DUNLAPBrownfields · 0.5 mi
- Skyline Coal Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Eagle Express No. 5Underground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Dunlap'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 Dunlap.
Total Sites
60
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Dunlap
Highest-Severity Sites
Know Before You Grow
- •Underground tanks leak petroleum as they age — near a former filling station, test the soil.
- •On a private well, test for nitrates: above 10 mg/L the water needs treatment before irrigating.
- •Near a brownfield, raised beds of imported soil give your food clean ground.
Check your specific parcel in Dunlap
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 Dunlap average
Your land is one point inside Dunlap
Everything above resolves to Dunlap as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 7K 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 Dunlap Average
Dunlap Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Dunlap
- ●One soil character for all of Dunlap
- ●Frost dates read at Dunlap's scale: Mar 13 to Nov 20
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Dunlap's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Dunlap
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Dunlap, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Dunlap averages can't show:
We read public map data around Dunlap — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Dunlap average
How we know this about Dunlap
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 Dunlap’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 Dunlap
When does frost risk typically end in Dunlap?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlap typically lands around Mar 13, 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 3.
When is the first frost in Dunlap?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Dunlap typically arrives around Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 6, so the watching starts about Oct 21 — about 252 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Dunlap?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Dunlap sees about 252 frost-free days — roughly Mar 13 through Nov 20, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 3 to Nov 6, about 217 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Dunlap?
The federal record around Dunlap shows 60 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (36), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Dunlap?
From about Oct 21 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 20 (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 20. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Dunlap's scale — its 8a band and its 252-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Dunlap'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 Dunlap’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Dunlap's own scale — its own ~252-day season between 28°F freezes, the 6,914 acres it covers and 60 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Dunlap's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Dunlap's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 13 and Nov 20 and the ~252-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 60 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Dunlap, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Dunlap's boundary and the 6,914 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~252-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Dunlap's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Dunlap checked, none carrying a detectionlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Dunlap's 6,914 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sequatchie County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sequatchie 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 Sequatchie County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Dunlap's 6,914 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Dunlap you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 6,914 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 Dunlap-wide figureread your own land →