Gilt Edge, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
These conditions suit cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gilt Edge, 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 Gilt Edge 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 Gilt Edge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gilt Edge — the short answer
Gilt Edge, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 263 days between hard freezes, across 2K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 24
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~263
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 2K 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 Gilt Edge's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gilt Edge's 263-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gilt Edge
Each reading below is measured for Gilt Edge itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGilt Edge runs about 263 days between hard freezes — close to year-round growing.
Frost is rarely the limit here; winter plantings are as real as summer ones, and the harder question is which crops shrug off the summer heat.
Grow cool-season crops through the mild winter, and choose heat-tolerant varieties for the summer beds.
NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
Winter hardiness
MeasuredGilt Edge 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 Gilt Edge is in
Gilt Edge sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gilt Edge's own centroid rather than borrowed from Tipton County.
What Grows in Gilt Edge
Every plant below cleared Gilt Edge's own zone 8a and its 263-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gilt Edge?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 6; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 24 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. Here the calendar nearly circles: cool-season crops take the winter shift, and the next window is always close.
Documented around Gilt Edge
Survey cells within 31 miles of Gilt Edge checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 176 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gilt Edge
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gilt Edge. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gilt Edge GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- INDUSTRIAL AIR CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.8 mi
- B. E. Glass IllUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Giltedge ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
- Austin AndersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Kelley Bros FarmUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Ballard's GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Gene AndersonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.9 mi
- Kenneth Turnage GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.0 mi
- John's Boat DockUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.3 mi
- 59 ExpressUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.9 mi
- Big D Farms IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gilt Edge'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 Gilt Edge.
Total Sites
112
within ~10 miles of Gilt Edge
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gilt Edge
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gilt Edge
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gilt Edge, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gilt Edge — PFAS (4 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (82 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 Gilt Edge
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 Gilt Edge average
Your land is one point inside Gilt Edge
Everything above resolves to Gilt Edge as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 2K 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 Gilt Edge Average
Gilt Edge Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Gilt Edge
- ●One soil character for all of Gilt Edge
- ●Frost dates read at Gilt Edge's scale: Mar 6 to Nov 24
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gilt Edge's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gilt Edge
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gilt Edge, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gilt Edge averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gilt Edge — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gilt Edge average
How we know this about Gilt Edge
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 Gilt Edge’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 Gilt Edge
When does frost risk typically end in Gilt Edge?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gilt Edge typically lands around Mar 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Gilt Edge?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gilt Edge typically arrives around Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 10, so the watching starts about Oct 25 — about 263 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gilt Edge?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gilt Edge sees about 263 frost-free days — roughly Mar 6 through Nov 24, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Mar 27 to Nov 10, about 228 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gilt Edge?
The federal record around Gilt Edge is a meaningful one — 112 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (82), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Gilt Edge?
From about Oct 25 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 24 (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 24. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gilt Edge's scale — its 8a band and its 263-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gilt Edge'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 Gilt Edge’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gilt Edge's own scale — its own ~263-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,733 acres it covers and 112 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gilt Edge's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gilt Edge's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 6 and Nov 24 and the ~263-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 112 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gilt Edge, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gilt Edge's boundary and the 1,733 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~263-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gilt Edge's own centroid, the Mississippi Valley Loess PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Gilt Edge 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 Gilt Edge's 1,733 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 Gilt Edge's 1,733 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gilt Edge you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,733 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.2 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 Gilt Edge-wide figureread your own land →