Lakesite, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
Reliable performers under these conditions include cabbage, fig, california poppy, and collard greens; what your own ground favors still comes down to its soil, sun, and drainage.
Even in Lakesite, 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 Lakesite 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 Lakesite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lakesite — the short answer
Lakesite, Tennessee: USDA zone 8a, about 245 days between hard freezes, across 1K acres of city.
- USDA zone
- 8a
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 15
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~245
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- City 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 8a is Lakesite's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lakesite's 245-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lakesite
Each reading below is measured for Lakesite itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLakesite runs about 245 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
MeasuredLakesite sits in USDA hardiness zone 8a.
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 Lakesite is in
Lakesite sits in the Ridge and Valley — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lakesite's own centroid rather than borrowed from Hamilton County.
What Grows in Lakesite
Every plant below cleared Lakesite's own zone 8a and its 245-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lakesite?
Rarely: the season closes in stages, not all at once, and each stage has its crops. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 15; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 15 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 15 — 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 Lakesite
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lakesite checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 96 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lakesite
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lakesite. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Chickamauga Equities IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Dusty's Bait And TackleUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- CVS PHARMACY #4428Brownfields · 1.0 mi
- Golden Gallon #115Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Circle K Store No. 4703606Underground Storage Tanks · 1.0 mi
- Gas N Go no. 713Underground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- S And H Erectors IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Harbor Lights Marina, Inc.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.4 mi
- Chester Frost Park, Maintenance DepartmentUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Hamilton Co. Recreational Dept.Underground Storage Tanks · 1.7 mi
- Dallas Bay Sky ParkUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.0 mi
- Sequoyah Nuclear PlantUnderground Storage Tanks · 2.2 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lakesite'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 Lakesite.
Total Sites
443
within ~10 miles of Lakesite
Risk Level
Elevated
Highest-severity
7 Superfund sites (none NPL-listed)
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lakesite
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lakesite
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lakesite, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lakesite — PFAS (5 sites) and Superfund (7 sites). Knowing it is half the work — and it's nothing a thoughtful grower can't plan for.
PFAS: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) are called "forever chemicals" because they do not biodegrade.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Test irrigation water source — this is the primary pathway for PFAS to reach garden crops.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lakesite
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 Lakesite average
Your land is one point inside Lakesite
Everything above resolves to Lakesite 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 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 Lakesite Average
Lakesite Average
- ●USDA Zones 8a, averaged across Lakesite
- ●One soil character for all of Lakesite
- ●Frost dates read at Lakesite's scale: Mar 15 to Nov 15
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lakesite's 8a
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lakesite
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lakesite, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lakesite averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lakesite — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lakesite average
How we know this about Lakesite
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 Lakesite’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 Lakesite
When does frost risk typically end in Lakesite?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lakesite typically lands around Mar 15, 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 5.
When is the first frost in Lakesite?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lakesite typically arrives around Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 1, so the watching starts about Oct 16 — about 245 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lakesite?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lakesite sees about 245 frost-free days — roughly Mar 15 through Nov 15, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 5 to Nov 1, about 210 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lakesite?
The federal record around Lakesite is a meaningful one — 443 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (277), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Lakesite?
From about Oct 16 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 15 (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 15. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lakesite's scale — its 8a band and its 245-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lakesite'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 Lakesite’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lakesite's own scale — its own ~245-day season between 28°F freezes, the 1,114 acres it covers and 443 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lakesite's own USDA hardiness band, zones 8aUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lakesite's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 15 and Nov 15 and the ~245-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 443 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lakesite, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 miles out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lakesite's boundary and the 1,114 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 8a and a ~245-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- The ecoregion at Lakesite's own centroid, the Ridge and ValleyUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lakesite 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 Lakesite's 1,114 acres read through its county's SSURGO summaryfrom Hamilton County
- Growing-degree days and winter chill — measured county-wide only, so the county page carries themfrom Hamilton 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 Hamilton County
What this page can’t tell you
- The soil pH, drainage, sun hours, and frost pockets on any one lot among Lakesite's 1,114 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lakesite you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 1,114 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record about 1.0 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 Lakesite-wide figureread your own land →
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