Finley, 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.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Finley, 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 Finley 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 Finley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Finley — the short answer
Finley, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 256 days between hard freezes, across 835 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~256
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 835 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 Finley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Finley's 256-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Finley
Each reading below is measured for Finley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredFinley runs about 256 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
MeasuredFinley 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 Finley is in
Finley sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Finley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Dyer County.
What Grows in Finley
Every plant below cleared Finley's own zone 7b and its 256-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Finley?
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 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 8 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Finley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Finley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- TLW PropertiesUnderground Storage Tanks · 350 ft
- DY:H-052Nitrate · 0.9 mi
- Big Boy Junction GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- B and B MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Jerry Mcquire FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Finley ElementaryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
- Anderson FarmsUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Bennett's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- COLONIAL DIVERSIFIED POLYMER PRODUCTS LLCToxics Release Inventory · 3.4 mi
- HECKETHORN MANUFACTURINGToxics Release Inventory · 3.5 mi
- Averitt Express IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- HECO REALTY LLCBrownfields · 3.7 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Finley'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 Finley.
Total Sites
219
within ~10 miles of Finley
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
15 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Finley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Finley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Finley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Finley — PFAS (3 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (163 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Finley
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 Finley average
Your land is one point inside Finley
Everything above resolves to Finley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 835 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 Finley Average
Finley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Finley
- ●One soil character for all of Finley
- ●Frost dates read at Finley's scale: Mar 8 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Finley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Finley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Finley, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Finley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Finley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Finley average
How we know this about Finley
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 Finley’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 Finley
When does frost risk typically end in Finley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Finley typically lands around Mar 8, 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 Mar 29.
When is the first frost in Finley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Finley typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 256 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Finley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Finley sees about 256 frost-free days — roughly Mar 8 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 29 to Nov 5, about 221 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Finley?
The federal record around Finley is a meaningful one — 219 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (163), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Finley?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Finley's scale — its 7b band and its 256-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Finley'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 Finley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Finley's own scale — its own ~256-day season between 28°F freezes, the 835 acres it covers and 219 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Finley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Finley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 8 and Nov 19 and the ~256-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 219 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Finley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Finley's boundary and the 835 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~256-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Finley's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Finley's 835 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Dyer County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Dyer 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 Dyer County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Finley's 835 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Finley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 835 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Finley-wide figureread your own land →