Graball, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
The conditions favor cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Graball, 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 Graball 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 Graball — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Graball — the short answer
Graball, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 237 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 21
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 13
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~237
- 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 Graball's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Graball's 237-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Graball
Each reading below is measured for Graball itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGraball runs about 237 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
MeasuredGraball 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 Graball is in
Graball sits in the Interior Plateau — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Graball's own centroid rather than borrowed from Sumner County.
What Grows in Graball
Every plant below cleared Graball's own zone 7b and its 237-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Graball?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 21; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 21 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 13 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. A long window like this one runs successions deep into fall — and even its last weeks take quick greens and garlic.
Documented around Graball
Spotted lanternfly documented 19 miles from Graball, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Graball
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Graball. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Kirkham Country MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Graball MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 950 ft
- Paul G Ferguson Co IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.6 mi
- Sr:J-001Nitrate · 3.6 mi
- Village Market #11Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Portland ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Williams Express, Inc. # 1090Underground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Portland SpurUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.7 mi
- Templeton's GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Rock Bridge GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.8 mi
- Portland Dist Office -cemcUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
- Portland Dist Office - CemcUnderground Storage Tanks · 4.8 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Graball'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 Graball.
Total Sites
257
within ~10 miles of Graball
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
35 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Graball
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Graball
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Graball, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Graball — Toxics Release Inventory (35 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (166 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Graball
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 Graball average
Your land is one point inside Graball
Everything above resolves to Graball 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 Graball Average
Graball Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Graball
- ●One soil character for all of Graball
- ●Frost dates read at Graball's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 13
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Graball's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Graball
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Graball, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Graball averages can't show:
We read public map data around Graball — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Graball average
How we know this about Graball
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 Graball’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 Graball
When does frost risk typically end in Graball?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Graball typically lands around Mar 21, 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 11.
When is the first frost in Graball?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Graball typically arrives around Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 30, so the watching starts about Oct 14 — about 237 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Graball?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Graball sees about 237 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 13, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 30, about 202 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Graball?
The federal record around Graball is a meaningful one — 257 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (166), 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 Graball?
From about Oct 14 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 13 (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 13. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Graball's scale — its 7b band and its 237-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Graball'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 Graball’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Graball's own scale — its own ~237-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,284 acres it covers and 257 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Graball's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Graball's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 13 and the ~237-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 257 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Graball, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Graball's boundary and the 1,284 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~237-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Graball's own centroid, the Interior PlateauUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Graballlydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Graball's 1,284 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 Graball's 1,284 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Graball you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,284 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 Graball-wide figureread your own land →
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