Finger, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
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 Finger, 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 Finger 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 Finger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Finger — the short answer
Finger, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 233 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- 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 11
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~233
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 1K 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 Finger's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Finger's 233-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Finger
Each reading below is measured for Finger itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFinger 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
MeasuredFinger 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 Finger is in
Finger sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Finger's own centroid rather than borrowed from McNairy County.
What Grows in Finger
Every plant below cleared Finger'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 Finger?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. 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 11 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Finger
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Finger. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Fingers Service StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 750 ft
- Latham's Package StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Cs:E-001Nitrate · 1.2 mi
- Former Latham GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Former T J And L Construction Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Seratt`s GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Alfred GarnerUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.1 mi
- Skinner's Food MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Cs:G-011Nitrate · 5.4 mi
- Simmon`s Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Audrey GarnerUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.5 mi
- Corner ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Finger'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 Finger.
Total Sites
106
within ~10 miles of Finger
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Finger
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Finger
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Finger, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 76 sites within ~10 miles of Finger. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Finger
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 Finger average
Your land is one point inside Finger
Everything above resolves to Finger as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 1K 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 Finger Average
Finger Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Finger
- ●One soil character for all of Finger
- ●Frost dates read at Finger's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 11
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Finger's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Finger
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Finger, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Finger averages can't show:
We read public map data around Finger — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Finger average
How we know this about Finger
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 Finger’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 Finger
When does frost risk typically end in Finger?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Finger 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 Finger?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Finger typically arrives around Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 28, so the watching starts about Oct 12 — about 233 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Finger?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Finger sees about 233 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 11, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 28, about 198 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Finger?
The federal record around Finger shows 106 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (76), 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 Finger?
From about Oct 12 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 11 (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 11. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Finger's scale — its 7b band and its 233-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Finger'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 Finger’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Finger's own scale — its own ~233-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,005 acres it covers and 106 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Finger's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Finger's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 11 and the ~233-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 106 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Finger, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Finger's boundary and the 1,005 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 Finger's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Finger's 1,005 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom McNairy County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom McNairy 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 McNairy County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Finger's 1,005 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Finger you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,005 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 Finger-wide figureread your own land →