East Cleveland, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in East Cleveland, 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 East Cleveland 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 East Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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East Cleveland — the short answer
East Cleveland, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 238 days between hard freezes, across 798 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~238
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 798 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 East Cleveland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against East Cleveland's 238-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in East Cleveland
Each reading below is measured for East Cleveland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredEast Cleveland runs about 238 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
MeasuredEast Cleveland 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 East Cleveland is in
East Cleveland sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at East Cleveland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Bradley County.
What Grows in East Cleveland
Every plant below cleared East Cleveland's own zone 7b and its 238-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in East Cleveland?
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 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 12 — 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.
Documented around East Cleveland
Survey cells within 31 miles of East Cleveland checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 108 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near East Cleveland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of East Cleveland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Penske Truck LeasingUnderground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- Enara Food MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Formaly King's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Barbara MclainUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Cleveland QuarryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Tennessee DotUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- City of Cleveland - Public WorksUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- Favorite Market # 35Underground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- H C Ledford GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- Harry's no. 15Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Circle K Store no. 4703639Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Evans GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from East Cleveland'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 East Cleveland.
Total Sites
351
within ~10 miles of East Cleveland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of East Cleveland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of East Cleveland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around East Cleveland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of East Cleveland — Toxics Release Inventory (32 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (266 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in East Cleveland
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 East Cleveland average
Your land is one point inside East Cleveland
Everything above resolves to East Cleveland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 798 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 East Cleveland Average
East Cleveland Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across East Cleveland
- ●One soil character for all of East Cleveland
- ●Frost dates read at East Cleveland's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not East Cleveland's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in East Cleveland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in East Cleveland, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that East Cleveland averages can't show:
We read public map data around East Cleveland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the East Cleveland average
How we know this about East Cleveland
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 East Cleveland’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 East Cleveland
When does frost risk typically end in East Cleveland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in East Cleveland typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in East Cleveland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in East Cleveland typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 238 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in East Cleveland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, East Cleveland sees about 238 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 29, about 203 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in East Cleveland?
The federal record around East Cleveland is a meaningful one — 351 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (266), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 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 East Cleveland?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at East Cleveland's scale — its 7b band and its 238-day season. Your yard writes its own version of East Cleveland'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 East Cleveland’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at East Cleveland's own scale — its own ~238-day season between 28°F freezes, the 798 acres it covers and 351 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- East Cleveland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- East Cleveland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 12 and the ~238-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 351 documented contamination sites on the federal record near East Cleveland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- East Cleveland's boundary and the 798 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~238-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at East Cleveland's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around East Cleveland 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 East Cleveland's 798 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Bradley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Bradley 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 Bradley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among East Cleveland's 798 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of East Cleveland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 798 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 East Cleveland-wide figureread your own land →
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