Garland, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — room for a real mix of vegetables, fruit, and perennials matched to the local frost calendar.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Garland, 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 Garland 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 Garland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Garland — the short answer
Garland, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 258 days between hard freezes, across 348 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 9
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 22
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~258
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 348 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 8a is Garland's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Garland's 258-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Garland
Each reading below is measured for Garland itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGarland runs about 258 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
MeasuredGarland sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Garland is in
Garland sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Garland's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tipton County.
What Grows in Garland
Every plant below cleared Garland's own zone 8a and its 258-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Garland?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 9 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 22 — 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 Garland
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Garland. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- E S BradshawUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Gary BilderbackUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Burlison Gin CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.5 mi
- Jac's Grocery*Underground Storage Tanks · 1.6 mi
- Fastimes no. 6 PartnershipUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- BRINGLE FARMS INCToxics Release Inventory · 1.9 mi
- Erwin And Son GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- 59 ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Gene AndersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Ballard's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- Kelley Bros FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.8 mi
- First Utility DistrictUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Garland'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 Garland.
Total Sites
160
within ~10 miles of Garland
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Garland
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Garland
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Garland, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Garland — PFAS (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (12 sites). It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Garland
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 Garland average
Your land is one point inside Garland
Everything above resolves to Garland as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 348 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 Garland Average
Garland Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Garland
- ●One soil character for all of Garland
- ●Frost dates read at Garland's scale: Mar 9 to Nov 22
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Garland's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Garland
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Garland, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Garland averages can't show:
We read public map data around Garland — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Garland average
How we know this about Garland
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 Garland’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 Garland
When does frost risk typically end in Garland?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Garland typically lands around Mar 9, 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 30.
When is the first frost in Garland?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Garland typically arrives around Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 8, so the watching starts about Oct 23 — about 258 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Garland?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Garland sees about 258 frost-free days — roughly Mar 9 through Nov 22, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 30 to Nov 8, about 223 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Garland?
The federal record around Garland is a meaningful one — 160 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (112), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Garland?
From about Oct 23 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 22 (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 22. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Garland's scale — its 8a band and its 258-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Garland'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 Garland’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Garland's own scale — its own ~258-day season between 28°F freezes, the 348 acres it covers and 160 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Garland's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Garland's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 9 and Nov 22 and the ~258-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 160 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Garland, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Garland's boundary and the 348 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~258-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Garland'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 Garland's 348 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Tipton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Tipton 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 Tipton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Garland's 348 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Garland you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 348 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.4 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 Garland-wide figureread your own land →