Greeneville, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Expect cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens to be strong candidates here; the deciding factors on any one parcel stay local — soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Greeneville, 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 Greeneville 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 Greeneville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Greeneville — the short answer
Greeneville, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 207 days between hard freezes, across 11K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 5
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 29
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~207
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 11K 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 7a is Greeneville's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Greeneville's 207-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Greeneville
Each reading below is measured for Greeneville itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredGreeneville runs about 207 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
MeasuredGreeneville sits in USDA hardiness zone 7a.
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 Greeneville is in
Greeneville sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Greeneville's own centroid rather than borrowed from Greene County.
What Grows in Greeneville
Every plant below cleared Greeneville's own zone 7a and its 207-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Greeneville?
Too late for some crops, right on time for others — a growing season is a sequence, not a deadline. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 8; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 5 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 29 — long-season crops need about 90 days of runway, quick greens only 30. With a season this long, “too late” mostly means “switch crops” — second sowings and a full fall garden are the norm, with garlic closing the year.
Documented around Greeneville
Survey cells within 31 miles of Greeneville checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 42 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Greeneville
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Greeneville. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Gateway GulfUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Heritage Chry Plymouth DodgeUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FIVE RIVERS ELECTRONIC INNOVATIONSBrownfields · 1300 ft
- FIVE RIVERS ELECTRONIC INNOVATIONSToxics Release Inventory · 1300 ft
- THE RADIATOR SHOP OF GREENEVILLE, LLCBrownfields · 1500 ft
- Huyck-formex Btr PaperUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Food City Gas N Go #606Underground Storage Tanks · 1600 ft
- By-Lo Market No.42Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- DELFASCO TENNESSEE DIVISIONToxics Release Inventory · 1900 ft
- DELFASCO TENNESSEE DIVISIONSuperfund · 1900 ft
- Plant #2 Service DeptUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Mason-dixon TerminalUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Greeneville'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 Greeneville.
Total Sites
374
within ~10 miles of Greeneville
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Greeneville
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Greeneville
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Greeneville, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Greeneville — Toxics Release Inventory (47 sites) and PFAS (5 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.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Check your specific parcel in Greeneville
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 Greeneville average
Your land is one point inside Greeneville
Everything above resolves to Greeneville as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 11K 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 Greeneville Average
Greeneville Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Greeneville
- ●One soil character for all of Greeneville
- ●Frost dates read at Greeneville's scale: Apr 5 to Oct 29
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Greeneville's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Greeneville
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Greeneville, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Greeneville averages can't show:
We read public map data around Greeneville — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Greeneville average
How we know this about Greeneville
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 Greeneville’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 Greeneville
When does frost risk typically end in Greeneville?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Greeneville typically lands around Apr 5, 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 26.
When is the first frost in Greeneville?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Greeneville typically arrives around Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 15, so the watching starts about Sep 29 — about 207 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Greeneville?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Greeneville sees about 207 frost-free days — roughly Apr 5 through Oct 29, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 26 to Oct 15, about 172 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Greeneville?
The federal record around Greeneville is a meaningful one — 374 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (259), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Greeneville?
From about Sep 29 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 Oct 29 (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 Oct 29. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Greeneville's scale — its 7a band and its 207-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Greeneville'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 Greeneville’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Greeneville's own scale — its own ~207-day season between 28°F freezes, the 10,878 acres it covers and 374 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Greeneville's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Greeneville's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 5 and Oct 29 and the ~207-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 374 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Greeneville, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Greeneville's boundary and the 10,878 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~207-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Greeneville's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Greeneville 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 Greeneville's 10,878 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Greene County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Greene 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 Greene County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Greeneville's 10,878 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Greeneville you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 10,878 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks 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 Greeneville-wide figureread your own land →
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