Gleason, 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 Gleason, 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 Gleason 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 Gleason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gleason — the short answer
Gleason, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 230 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- 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 8
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~230
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town 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 Gleason's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gleason's 230-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gleason
Each reading below is measured for Gleason itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGleason runs about 230 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
MeasuredGleason 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 Gleason is in
Gleason sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gleason's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Weakley County is mostly Mississippi Valley Loess Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Gleason
Every plant below cleared Gleason's own zone 7b and its 230-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gleason?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. 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 8 — 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 Gleason
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gleason. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Little General #17Underground Storage Tanks · 600 ft
- J and P ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 800 ft
- Gleason Bulk PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 1000 ft
- Spain Brothers Milling CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- City Of GleasonUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Gleason High SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Henry I Siegel CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Kentucky-tennessee Clay Co.endUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- Weakley Farmers Co-opUnderground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- WK:G-008Nitrate · 1800 ft
- QUALITY & SERVICE ELECTROPLATING INCORPORATEDToxics Release Inventory · 0.6 mi
- Gleason MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gleason'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 Gleason.
Total Sites
126
within ~10 miles of Gleason
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
2 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gleason
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gleason
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gleason, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Gleason — CAFO (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (9 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
CAFO: CAFOs pose a different contamination profile than chemical sources.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Wash all produce consumed raw thoroughly, especially leafy greens grown near CAFOs.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Gleason
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 Gleason average
Your land is one point inside Gleason
Everything above resolves to Gleason 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 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 Gleason Average
Gleason Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gleason
- ●One soil character for all of Gleason
- ●Frost dates read at Gleason's scale: Mar 23 to Nov 8
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gleason's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gleason
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gleason, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gleason averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gleason — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gleason average
How we know this about Gleason
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 Gleason’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 Gleason
When does frost risk typically end in Gleason?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gleason 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 Gleason?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gleason typically arrives around Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 25, so the watching starts about Oct 9 — about 230 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gleason?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gleason sees about 230 frost-free days — roughly Mar 23 through Nov 8, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 13 to Oct 25, about 195 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gleason?
The federal record around Gleason is a meaningful one — 126 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (83), 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 Gleason?
From about Oct 9 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 8 (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 8. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gleason's scale — its 7b band and its 230-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gleason'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 Gleason’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Gleason's own scale — its own ~230-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,428 acres it covers and 126 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gleason's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gleason's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 23 and Nov 8 and the ~230-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 126 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gleason, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gleason's boundary and the 1,428 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~230-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Gleason sits in the Southeastern Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gleason's 1,428 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Weakley County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Weakley 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 Weakley County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gleason's 1,428 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gleason you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,428 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 Gleason-wide figureread your own land →