Hickory Valley, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a range where zone-matched perennials and frost-aware annual timing set what succeeds.
A short list that earns its place here — cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with any one site's soil, sun, and drainage making the final cut.
Even in Hickory Valley, 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 Hickory Valley 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 Hickory Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hickory Valley — the short answer
Hickory Valley, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 203 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 12
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 203 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 Hickory Valley's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hickory Valley's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hickory Valley
Each reading below is measured for Hickory Valley itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHickory Valley 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
MeasuredHickory Valley 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 Hickory Valley is in
Hickory Valley sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hickory Valley's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardeman County.
What Grows in Hickory Valley
Every plant below cleared Hickory Valley'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 Hickory Valley?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. 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 Hickory Valley
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hickory Valley. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hickory Valley GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 650 ft
- Fawcett Lumber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 700 ft
- Tennysons One StopUnderground Storage Tanks · 0.6 mi
- U.S. TVA HICKORY VALLEY 161 KV SUBSTATIONToxics Release Inventory · 1.6 mi
- HR:J-012Nitrate · 2.0 mi
- Hr:E-011Nitrate · 4.5 mi
- Robert WilsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- New Castle GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.0 mi
- Robertson Country StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 5.7 mi
- ICE (US) INCBrownfields · 5.9 mi
- FA:K-020Nitrate · 6.1 mi
- Johnny JohnsonUnderground Storage Tanks · 6.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hickory Valley'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 Hickory Valley.
Total Sites
58
within ~10 miles of Hickory Valley
Risk Level
Moderate
Highest-severity
4 Toxics Release Inventory facilities
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hickory Valley
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hickory Valley
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hickory Valley, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Hickory Valley — Toxics Release Inventory (4 sites) and Nitrate (16 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Nitrate: Nitrate contamination primarily comes from agricultural fertilizer runoff and failing septic systems.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Test well water for nitrate if you rely on a private well for irrigation (EPA standard: 10 mg/L).
Check your specific parcel in Hickory Valley
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 Hickory Valley average
Your land is one point inside Hickory Valley
Everything above resolves to Hickory Valley as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 203 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 Hickory Valley Average
Hickory Valley Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hickory Valley
- ●One soil character for all of Hickory Valley
- ●Frost dates read at Hickory Valley's scale: Mar 21 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hickory Valley's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hickory Valley
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hickory Valley, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hickory Valley averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hickory Valley — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hickory Valley average
How we know this about Hickory Valley
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 Hickory Valley’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 Hickory Valley
When does frost risk typically end in Hickory Valley?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Valley 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 Hickory Valley?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hickory Valley 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 Hickory Valley?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hickory Valley 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 Hickory Valley?
The federal record around Hickory Valley shows 58 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (34), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles 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 Hickory Valley?
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 Hickory Valley's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hickory Valley'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 Hickory Valley’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hickory Valley's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 203 acres it covers and 58 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hickory Valley's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hickory Valley's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 21 and Nov 12 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 58 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hickory Valley, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.1 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hickory Valley's boundary and the 203 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hickory Valley's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hickory Valley's 203 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 Hickory Valley's 203 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hickory Valley you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 203 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 Hickory Valley-wide figureread your own land →