Gray, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
These conditions suit cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — a starting list any specific site will trim or extend with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Gray, 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 Gray 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 Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Gray — the short answer
Gray, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 219 days between hard freezes, across 951 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 3
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~219
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 951 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 Gray's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Gray's 219-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Gray
Each reading below is measured for Gray itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGray runs about 219 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
MeasuredGray 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 Gray is in
Gray sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Gray's own centroid rather than borrowed from Washington County.
What Grows in Gray
Every plant below cleared Gray's own zone 7b and its 219-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Gray?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 1; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 29 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 3 — 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 Gray
Spotted lanternfly documented 17 miles from Gray, first recorded 2023. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Gray
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Gray. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- EAST TENNESSEE STATE UNIVERSITY, QUILLEN COLLEGE OF MEDICINEBrownfields · 1200 ft
- Community MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2000 ft
- Food City Gas N Go #670Underground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- U.S. ARMY RESERVE AMSA 147 (G) JOHN CITYBrownfields · 2600 ft
- Buffalo Ridge Baptist ChurchUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- SOUTHEAST RECYCLILNG TECHNOLOGIES INCBrownfields · 0.7 mi
- Roadrunner Market #155Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Roadrunner #111Underground Storage Tanks · 0.8 mi
- Appco No. 37Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Former ITT FacilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TPI CORPORATIONBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- TPI CORPORATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Gray'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 Gray.
Total Sites
718
within ~10 miles of Gray
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
4 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Gray
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Gray
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Gray, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 552 sites within ~10 miles of Gray. It's not cause for alarm — it's worth knowing, and there's a sensible way to grow around it.
Underground Storage Tanks: Underground storage tanks are the single most common source of soil contamination near homes and gardens.
Use raised beds with imported soil — this eliminates the primary soil-contact pathway.
Check your specific parcel in Gray
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 Gray average
Your land is one point inside Gray
Everything above resolves to Gray as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 951 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 Gray Average
Gray Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Gray
- ●One soil character for all of Gray
- ●Frost dates read at Gray's scale: Mar 29 to Nov 3
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Gray's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Gray
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Gray, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Gray averages can't show:
We read public map data around Gray — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Gray average
How we know this about Gray
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 Gray’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 Gray
When does frost risk typically end in Gray?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Gray typically lands around Mar 29, 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 19.
When is the first frost in Gray?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Gray typically arrives around Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 20, so the watching starts about Oct 4 — about 219 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Gray?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Gray sees about 219 frost-free days — roughly Mar 29 through Nov 3, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 19 to Oct 20, about 184 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Gray?
The federal record around Gray is a meaningful one — 718 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (552), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Gray?
From about Oct 4 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 3 (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 3. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Gray's scale — its 7b band and its 219-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Gray'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 Gray’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Gray's own scale — its own ~219-day season between 28°F freezes, the 951 acres it covers and 718 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Gray's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Gray's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 29 and Nov 3 and the ~219-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 718 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Gray, the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Gray's boundary and the 951 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~219-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Gray's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- A documented spotted-lanternfly record within reach of Graylydemapr (De Bona & Helmus), 10 km survey lattice
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Gray's 951 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Washington County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Washington 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 Washington County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Gray's 951 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Gray you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 951 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.2 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 Gray-wide figureread your own land →
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