Hornsby, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — enough range to grow cool-season vegetables, hardy fruit, and warm-season crops that mature before the first hard frost.
Among the crops suited to this profile: cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens. The site-level story — soil, sun, drainage — decides the rest.
Even in Hornsby, 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 Hornsby 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 Hornsby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Hornsby — the short answer
Hornsby, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 240 days between hard freezes, across 673 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 17
- 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
- ~240
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 673 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 Hornsby's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Hornsby's 240-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Hornsby
Each reading below is measured for Hornsby itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredHornsby runs about 240 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
MeasuredHornsby 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 Hornsby is in
Hornsby sits in the Southeastern Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Hornsby's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hardeman County.
What Grows in Hornsby
Every plant below cleared Hornsby's own zone 7b and its 240-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Hornsby?
Usually not — gardeners here simply switch what goes in the ground as the season moves. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 17; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 17 (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. There is slack in a calendar like this — late plantings, second rounds of favorites, and a fall bench that keeps beds working.
What's on the federal record near Hornsby
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Hornsby. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Hornsby Elementary SchoolUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Sharecropper'sUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Donnie SpenceUnderground Storage Tanks · 1400 ft
- Whitehurst Exxon*Underground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- Hornsby StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 1500 ft
- HR:M-011Nitrate · 2000 ft
- Joe's PlaceUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- SPECTRUM LUBRICANTS INC-MAIN PLANTBrownfields · 2100 ft
- HR:M-012Nitrate · 0.6 mi
- Big Buck Camping And Hunting ResorUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.5 mi
- Hardeman Dev Service CtrUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
- Geyer's Corner GroceryUnderground Storage Tanks · 3.1 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Hornsby'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 Hornsby.
Total Sites
88
within ~10 miles of Hornsby
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
1 Superfund site (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Hornsby
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Hornsby
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Hornsby, Underground Storage Tanks runs higher than the national average — 63 sites within ~10 miles of Hornsby. That's not a problem with your land — it's information about 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 Hornsby
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 Hornsby average
Your land is one point inside Hornsby
Everything above resolves to Hornsby as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 673 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 Hornsby Average
Hornsby Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Hornsby
- ●One soil character for all of Hornsby
- ●Frost dates read at Hornsby's scale: Mar 17 to Nov 12
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Hornsby's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Hornsby
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Hornsby, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Hornsby averages can't show:
We read public map data around Hornsby — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Hornsby average
How we know this about Hornsby
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 Hornsby’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 Hornsby
When does frost risk typically end in Hornsby?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Hornsby typically lands around Mar 17, 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 7.
When is the first frost in Hornsby?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Hornsby 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 240 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Hornsby?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Hornsby sees about 240 frost-free days — roughly Mar 17 through Nov 12, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 7 to Oct 29, about 205 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Hornsby?
The federal record around Hornsby is a meaningful one — 88 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (63), 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 Hornsby?
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 Hornsby's scale — its 7b band and its 240-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Hornsby'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 Hornsby’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Hornsby's own scale — its own ~240-day season between 28°F freezes, the 673 acres it covers and 88 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Hornsby's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Hornsby's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 17 and Nov 12 and the ~240-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 88 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Hornsby, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.2 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Hornsby's boundary and the 673 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~240-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Hornsby's own centroid, the Southeastern PlainsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Hornsby's 673 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 Hornsby's 673 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Hornsby you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 673 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 Hornsby-wide figureread your own land →