Helenwood, 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.
The conditions favor cabbage, pawpaw, california poppy, and collard greens, among others — though every individual site edits that list with its own soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Helenwood, 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 Helenwood 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 Helenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Helenwood — the short answer
Helenwood, Tennessee: USDA zone 7a, about 205 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Apr 6
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Oct 28
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~205
- 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 7a is Helenwood's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Helenwood's 205-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Helenwood
Each reading below is measured for Helenwood itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHelenwood runs about 205 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
MeasuredHelenwood 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 Helenwood is in
Helenwood sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Helenwood's own centroid rather than borrowed from Scott County.
What Grows in Helenwood
Every plant below cleared Helenwood's own zone 7a and its 205-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Helenwood?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Mar 9; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Apr 6 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Oct 28 — 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.
Documented around Helenwood
Survey cells within 31 miles of Helenwood checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 108 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Helenwood
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Helenwood. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- CONTAINER TECHNOLOGIES INDUSTRIES, LLCBrownfields · 1900 ft
- Helenwood Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Byrds Mini MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.7 mi
- Perdue Shell MartUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Citizens Gas UtilityUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- Scott County School Bus GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Burris Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- Ryan Auto ServiceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- FIREFLY LANE LANDFILLSuperfund · 1.4 mi
- Jerry's Garage And Auto PartsUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.9 mi
- Scott Co. Road Dept. GarageUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Lee's Food Mart no. 20Underground Storage Tanks · 2.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Helenwood'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 Helenwood.
Total Sites
94
within ~10 miles of Helenwood
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
3 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Helenwood
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Helenwood
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Helenwood, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Helenwood — Superfund (3 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (8 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Check your specific parcel in Helenwood
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 Helenwood average
Your land is one point inside Helenwood
Everything above resolves to Helenwood 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 Helenwood Average
Helenwood Average
- ●USDA Zones 7a, averaged across Helenwood
- ●One soil character for all of Helenwood
- ●Frost dates read at Helenwood's scale: Apr 6 to Oct 28
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Helenwood's 7a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Helenwood
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Helenwood, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Helenwood averages can't show:
We read public map data around Helenwood — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Helenwood average
How we know this about Helenwood
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 Helenwood’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 Helenwood
When does frost risk typically end in Helenwood?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Helenwood typically lands around Apr 6, 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 27.
When is the first frost in Helenwood?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Helenwood typically arrives around Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 14, so the watching starts about Sep 28 — about 205 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Helenwood?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Helenwood sees about 205 frost-free days — roughly Apr 6 through Oct 28, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 27 to Oct 14, about 170 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Helenwood?
The federal record around Helenwood is a meaningful one — 94 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (72), the nearest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Helenwood?
From about Sep 28 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 28 (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 28. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Helenwood's scale — its 7a band and its 205-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Helenwood'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 Helenwood’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Helenwood's own scale — its own ~205-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,286 acres it covers and 94 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Helenwood's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Helenwood's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Apr 6 and Oct 28 and the ~205-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 94 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Helenwood, the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Helenwood's boundary and the 1,286 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7a and a ~205-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Helenwood's own centroid, the Southwestern AppalachiansUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Helenwood 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 Helenwood's 1,286 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Scott County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Scott 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 Scott County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Helenwood's 1,286 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Helenwood you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,286 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Brownfields record about 0.4 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 Helenwood-wide figureread your own land →
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