Farner, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
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 Farner, 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 Farner 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 Farner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Farner — the short answer
Farner, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 224 days between hard freezes, across 934 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 27
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~224
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 934 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 Farner's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Farner's 224-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Farner
Each reading below is measured for Farner itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFarner runs about 224 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
MeasuredFarner 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 Farner is in
Farner sits in the Blue Ridge — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Farner's own centroid rather than borrowed from Polk County.
What Grows in Farner
Every plant below cleared Farner's own zone 7b and its 224-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Farner?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 27; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 27 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 6 — 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.
Documented around Farner
Survey cells within 31 miles of Farner 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 Farner
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Farner. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kick Start ConvenienceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Nicholson Oil Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Raper Brothers StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Sonny PayneUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.2 mi
- Nicholson General MerchandiseUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.7 mi
- Lloyde PicklesimerUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Turtletown Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Earl and Barbara SimpsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.4 mi
- Ken And Viv's Food CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- Vic's Tire PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.1 mi
- HIWASSEE DAM SCHOOLUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.5 mi
- G'S GAS AND GRILL, INC.Underground Storage Tanks · 6.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Farner'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 Farner.
Total Sites
67
within ~10 miles of Farner
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
5 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Farner
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Farner
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Farner, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Farner — Superfund (5 sites) and Mining (16 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Mining: Mining sites — both historic and active — can leach heavy metals (arsenic, lead, cadmium, mercury) into soil and water for centuries after operations cease.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Test soil for heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury) — this is essential near any mining site.
Check your specific parcel in Farner
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 Farner average
Your land is one point inside Farner
Everything above resolves to Farner as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 934 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 Farner Average
Farner Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Farner
- ●One soil character for all of Farner
- ●Frost dates read at Farner's scale: Mar 27 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Farner's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Farner
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Farner, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Farner averages can't show:
We read public map data around Farner — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Farner average
How we know this about Farner
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 Farner’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 Farner
When does frost risk typically end in Farner?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Farner typically lands around Mar 27, 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 17.
When is the first frost in Farner?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Farner typically arrives around Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 23, so the watching starts about Oct 7 — about 224 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Farner?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Farner sees about 224 frost-free days — roughly Mar 27 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 17 to Oct 23, about 189 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Farner?
The federal record around Farner is a meaningful one — 67 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (41), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Farner?
From about Oct 7 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 6 (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 6. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Farner's scale — its 7b band and its 224-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Farner'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 Farner’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Farner's own scale — its own ~224-day season between 28°F freezes, the 934 acres it covers and 67 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Farner's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Farner's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 27 and Nov 6 and the ~224-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 67 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Farner, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Farner's boundary and the 934 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~224-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Farner's own centroid, the Blue RidgeUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Farner 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 Farner's 934 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Polk County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Polk 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 Polk County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Farner's 934 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Farner you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 934 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.5 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 Farner-wide figureread your own land →