Grand Junction, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Well-matched crops include cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens, and the gap between "grows in the area" and "grows in your yard" is closed by soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Grand Junction, 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 Grand Junction 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 Grand Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Grand Junction — the short answer
Grand Junction, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 760 acres of city.
- 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 760 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 Grand Junction's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Grand Junction's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Grand Junction
Each reading below is measured for Grand Junction itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGrand Junction runs about 236 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
MeasuredGrand Junction 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 Grand Junction is in
Grand Junction sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Grand Junction's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hardeman County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Grand Junction
Every plant below cleared Grand Junction's own zone 7b and its 236-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Grand Junction?
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 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 12 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Grand Junction
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Grand Junction. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- HR:E-027Nitrate · 500 ft
- City Of Grand JunctionUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- HR:E-003Nitrate · 900 ft
- Grand Junction Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 900 ft
- Highway 57 Grocery and DeliUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- CRANE COMPOSITES, INC.Brownfields · 1300 ft
- CRANE COMPOSITES, INC.Toxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- ASCHULMANToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- Hess GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Bumpus And SmithUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Junction Quick StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 2600 ft
- Mid-South Farmers CooperativeUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Grand Junction'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 Grand Junction.
Total Sites
54
within ~10 miles of Grand Junction
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
3 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Grand Junction
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Grand Junction
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Grand Junction, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Grand Junction — Nitrate (16 sites) and Underground Storage Tanks (34 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Grand Junction
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 Grand Junction average
Your land is one point inside Grand Junction
Everything above resolves to Grand Junction as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 760 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 Grand Junction Average
Grand Junction Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Grand Junction
- ●One soil character for all of Grand Junction
- ●Frost dates read at Grand Junction's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Grand Junction's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Grand Junction
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Grand Junction, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Grand Junction averages can't show:
We read public map data around Grand Junction — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Grand Junction average
How we know this about Grand Junction
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 Grand Junction’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 Grand Junction
When does frost risk typically end in Grand Junction?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Junction 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 Grand Junction?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Grand Junction typically arrives around Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 29, so the watching starts about Oct 13 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Grand Junction?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Grand Junction sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 21 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 11 to Oct 29, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Grand Junction?
The federal record around Grand Junction shows 54 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out — a typical footprint for a growing area, and proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard. It's worth seeing which recorded sites sit closest to where you grow, and testing the soil before new food beds near any of them.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Grand Junction?
From about Oct 13 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 12 (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 12. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Grand Junction's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Grand Junction'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 Grand Junction’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Grand Junction's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 760 acres it covers and 54 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Grand Junction's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Grand Junction's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 12 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 54 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Grand Junction, the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Grand Junction's boundary and the 760 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Grand Junction sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess 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 Grand Junction's 760 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hardeman County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hardeman 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 Hardeman County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Grand Junction's 760 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Grand Junction you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 760 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Nitrate record under a tenth of a mile 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 Grand Junction-wide figureread your own land →