Gallatin, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gallatin, 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 Gallatin 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 Gallatin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gallatin — the short answer
Gallatin, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 225 days between hard freezes, across 23K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 26
- 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
- ~225
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 23K 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 Gallatin's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gallatin's 225-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gallatin
Each reading below is measured for Gallatin itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGallatin runs about 225 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
MeasuredGallatin 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 Gallatin is in
Gallatin sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gallatin's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumner County.
What Grows in Gallatin
Every plant below cleared Gallatin's own zone 7b and its 225-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gallatin?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 26; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 26 (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 Gallatin
Spotted lanternfly documented 11 miles from Gallatin, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gallatin
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gallatin. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- K-mart #9694Underground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- KROGER #897-26Brownfields · 800 ft
- DULIN CLEANERSBrownfields · 850 ft
- Kroger Fueling StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Chevron #42960Underground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Sudden Service no. 57Underground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- TRACTOR SUPPLY COMPANY #438Brownfields · 1500 ft
- Kwik Sak #612Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- Alexander Funeral HomeUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- CVS PHARMACY #6441Brownfields · 0.5 mi
- Phillips Food PlazaUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.5 mi
- City Of Gallatin Service CtnUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gallatin'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 Gallatin.
Total Sites
260
within ~10 miles of Gallatin
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gallatin
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gallatin
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gallatin, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gallatin — Toxics Release Inventory (23 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (167 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
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 Gallatin
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 Gallatin average
Your land is one point inside Gallatin
Everything above resolves to Gallatin as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 23K 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 Gallatin Average
Gallatin Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gallatin
- ●One soil character for all of Gallatin
- ●Frost dates read at Gallatin's scale: Mar 26 to Nov 6
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gallatin's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gallatin
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gallatin, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gallatin averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gallatin — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gallatin average
How we know this about Gallatin
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 Gallatin’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 Gallatin
When does frost risk typically end in Gallatin?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gallatin typically lands around Mar 26, 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 16.
When is the first frost in Gallatin?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gallatin 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 225 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gallatin?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gallatin sees about 225 frost-free days — roughly Mar 26 through Nov 6, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 16 to Oct 23, about 190 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gallatin?
The federal record around Gallatin is a meaningful one — 260 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (167), 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 Gallatin?
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 Gallatin's scale — its 7b band and its 225-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gallatin'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 Gallatin’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gallatin's own scale — its own ~225-day season between 28°F freezes, the 22,562 acres it covers and 260 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gallatin's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gallatin's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 26 and Nov 6 and the ~225-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 260 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gallatin, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gallatin's boundary and the 22,562 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~225-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gallatin's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Gallatinlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gallatin's 22,562 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Sumner County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Sumner 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 Sumner County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gallatin's 22,562 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gallatin you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 22,562 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 Gallatin-wide figureread your own land →