Jackson, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a band that supports both cool-season staples and warm-season crops chosen to fit the local frost window.
Growers here do well with cabbage, prickly pear, california poppy, and collard greens — with the usual caveat that any single yard's soil, sun, and drainage cast the deciding vote.
Even in Jackson, 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 Jackson 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 Jackson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
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Jackson — the short answer
Jackson, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 236 days between hard freezes, across 38K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 10
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~236
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City area
- 38K 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 Jackson's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Jackson's 236-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Jackson
Each reading below is measured for Jackson itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredJackson 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
MeasuredJackson 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 Jackson is in
Jackson sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Jackson's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Madison County is mostly Southeastern Plains. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Jackson
Every plant below cleared Jackson'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 Jackson?
For most of the year, no — what changes is which crops still fit the days remaining. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 19; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 19 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 10 — 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.
What's on the federal record near Jackson
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Jackson. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- AmiCare of Tennessee, LLC.Underground Storage Tanks · 1700 ft
- Old Hickory ExxonUnderground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- American Tire And Service Co.Underground Storage Tanks · 2100 ft
- THE GOODYEAR TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY #2671Brownfields · 2200 ft
- Goodyear Tire And Rubber CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2200 ft
- Sears Roebuck And CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2300 ft
- Former Q Mart StoreUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Clark Gas StationUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Lacy's Corner MarketUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- F-1Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- F-2Underground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
- Jackson Wilbert Burial Vault CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 2400 ft
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Jackson'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 Jackson.
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Jackson
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Jackson
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Jackson, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Jackson — Superfund (11 sites) and Toxics Release Inventory (50 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
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 Jackson
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 Jackson average
Your land is one point inside Jackson
Everything above resolves to Jackson as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 38K 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 city 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 Jackson Average
Jackson Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Jackson
- ●One soil character for all of Jackson
- ●Frost dates read at Jackson's scale: Mar 19 to Nov 10
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Jackson's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Jackson
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Jackson, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Jackson averages can't show:
We read public map data around Jackson — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Jackson average
How we know this about Jackson
The datasets: hardiness from the USDA ARS Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023, read at this city’s own centroid; hard-freeze dates from NOAA 1991–2020 28°F normals at Jackson’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 city grain anywhere on this page — there is no city-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 Jackson
When does frost risk typically end in Jackson?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson typically lands around Mar 19, 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 9.
When is the first frost in Jackson?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Jackson typically arrives around Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Oct 27, so the watching starts about Oct 11 — about 236 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Jackson?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Jackson sees about 236 frost-free days — roughly Mar 19 through Nov 10, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 9 to Oct 27, about 201 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Jackson?
The federal record around Jackson is a meaningful one — 604 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (405), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Jackson?
From about Oct 11 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 10 (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 10. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Jackson's scale — its 7b band and its 236-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Jackson'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 Jackson’s own scale
6 of the readings below were taken at Jackson's own scale — its own ~236-day season between 28°F freezes, the 37,587 acres it covers and 604 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Jackson's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Jackson's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 19 and Nov 10 and the ~236-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 604 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Jackson, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Jackson's boundary and the 37,587 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~236-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Jackson sits in the Mississippi Valley Loess Plains — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
Inherited from a wider read
- Soil character — no town-scale survey exists, so Jackson's 37,587 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Madison County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Madison 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 Madison County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Jackson's 37,587 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Jackson you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 37,587 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 0.3 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 Jackson-wide figureread your own land →