Lookout Mountain, Tennessee, sits in USDA hardiness zone 7b — a zone band wide enough that plant choice, not possibility, is the interesting question.
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 Lookout Mountain, 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 Lookout Mountain 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 Lookout Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
No card required · your full report in seconds
Lookout Mountain — the short answer
Lookout Mountain, Tennessee: USDA zone 7b, about 248 days between hard freezes, across 860 acres of town.
- USDA zone
- 7b
- USDA PHZM 2023
- Last hard freeze (28°F)
- Mar 16
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- First hard freeze (28°F)
- Nov 19
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Days between freezes
- ~248
- NOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals, 28°F — this town
- Town area
- 860 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 Lookout Mountain's average, not your lot's — a low corner or a tree line moves it. Against Lookout Mountain's 248-day season, see what your own ground reads.
Soil varies lot by lot — soil types explained.
What this means for growing in Lookout Mountain
Each reading below is measured for Lookout Mountain itself — here is what it means for a garden here, and the move an experienced grower makes about it.
Season length
MeasuredLookout Mountain runs about 248 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
MeasuredLookout Mountain 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 Lookout Mountain is in
Lookout Mountain sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — EPA Level III, inside the wider Eastern Temperate Forests. That is read at Lookout Mountain's own centroid, and it is not what its county reads: Hamilton County is mostly Ridge and Valley. The wider page above you is answering a different question about different ground.
What Grows in Lookout Mountain
Every plant below cleared Lookout Mountain's own zone 7b and its 248-day season. Each card opens that plant's Tennessee profile. How we score.
Is it too late to plant in Lookout Mountain?
Almost never — the real question is what to plant next. Cool-season crops can go in from around Feb 16; tender transplants wait until two to three weeks after the last 28°F hard freeze, which lands near Mar 16 (NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals); and from midsummer, planting counts back from the first fall freeze around Nov 19 — 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 Lookout Mountain
Survey cells within 31 miles of Lookout Mountain checked for spotted lanternfly, none carrying a detection — a surveyed negative, not an absence of looking. Nearest documented record 93 miles off. What to watch for.
What's on the federal record near Lookout Mountain
Closest first, within ~10 miles of Lookout Mountain. Listing isn't leaking, and distance isn't exposure.
- Mills And Lupton Supply CoUnderground Storage Tanks · 100 ft
- Incline RailwayUnderground Storage Tanks · 850 ft
- Town of Lookout MountainUnderground Storage Tanks · 1100 ft
- Lookout Mountain Service CenterUnderground Storage Tanks · 1200 ft
- FORMER USAF/FLINTSTONE AFS-COVENANT COLLEGEUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.1 mi
- CITY OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAINUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.2 mi
- TRANSMONTAIGNE OPERATING COMPANY, L.P. - LOOKOUT MOUNTAINTERMINALBrownfields · 1.2 mi
- MAPCO EXPRESS 3663Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- HT TECH EXPRESS #8Underground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- South Central-chtgtnseUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Griffin Industries Chatt DockUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
- Uniform Rental Service IncUnderground Storage Tanks · 1.3 mi
6 more sites are on the record inside the same radius. See them on the map
Measured from Lookout Mountain'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 Lookout Mountain.
Total Sites
1,289
within ~10 miles of Lookout Mountain
Risk Level
High
Highest-severity
26 Superfund sites
Sources Checked
within ~10 miles of Lookout Mountain
Severity Distribution
within ~10 miles of Lookout Mountain
Highest-Severity Sites
A note from Gnorman
What an experienced grower watches for around here
In and around Lookout Mountain, two things run higher than the national average within ~10 miles of Lookout Mountain — Toxics Release Inventory (138 sites) and Superfund (26 sites). That's not a problem with your land — it's information about it.
Toxics Release Inventory: TRI facilities report annual chemical releases to air, water, and land.
Superfund: Superfund sites represent the most severe contamination in the federal system.
Check prevailing wind direction — downwind parcels face higher exposure than upwind or crosswind locations.
Commission professional soil testing before any food production (test for heavy metals, VOCs, and SVOCs).
Check your specific parcel in Lookout Mountain
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 Lookout Mountain average
Your land is one point inside Lookout Mountain
Everything above resolves to Lookout Mountain as a whole — one PHZM band and one 28°F frost record, read across 860 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 Lookout Mountain Average
Lookout Mountain Average
- ●USDA Zones 7b, averaged across Lookout Mountain
- ●One soil character for all of Lookout Mountain
- ●Frost dates read at Lookout Mountain's scale: Mar 16 to Nov 19
YOUR Parcel
- ✓Your exact zone, not Lookout Mountain's 7b
- ✓Your SSURGO soil type & pH
- ✓Your sun exposure, cast in 3D
See MY Growing Report
Read your specific parcel in Lookout Mountain
Pull a site-specific report for your exact address in Lookout Mountain, Tennessee — soil, sun, drainage, frost risk, and scored plant recommendations.
Three things about your lot that Lookout Mountain averages can't show:
We read public map data around Lookout Mountain — soil, climate, flood, and parcel records. How we handle your address.
25+ data sources read at your address, not the Lookout Mountain average
How we know this about Lookout Mountain
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 Lookout Mountain’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 Lookout Mountain
When does frost risk typically end in Lookout Mountain?
The last hard freeze (28°F) in Lookout Mountain typically lands around Mar 16, 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 6.
When is the first frost in Lookout Mountain?
The first hard freeze (28°F) in Lookout Mountain typically arrives around Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals — the point tender summer crops finish. Lighter frosts run ahead of it, near Nov 5, so the watching starts about Oct 20 — about 248 days after the spring freeze cleared.
How long is the growing season in Lookout Mountain?
Measured between 28°F hard freezes, Lookout Mountain sees about 248 frost-free days — roughly Mar 16 through Nov 19, per NOAA 1991–2020 climate normals. Tender crops work a shorter one: nearer Apr 6 to Nov 5, about 213 days.
Is the soil safe to grow vegetables in Lookout Mountain?
The federal record around Lookout Mountain runs heavier than most — 1,289 documented sites, mostly Underground Storage Tanks entries (891), the nearest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out — so test the soil before planting food in the ground, and raised beds with clean imported soil grow well in the meantime. Even here, proximity to a documented site is information, not a diagnosis of any one yard; the contamination map shows exactly what's recorded and where.
How do I protect my plants from frost in Lookout Mountain?
From about Oct 20 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 19 (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 19. Hardy greens and roots shrug off light frost and sweeten after it — leave them in.
Everything above is measured at Lookout Mountain's scale — its 7b band and its 248-day season. Your yard writes its own version of Lookout Mountain'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 Lookout Mountain’s own scale
7 of the readings below were taken at Lookout Mountain's own scale — its own ~248-day season between 28°F freezes, the 860 acres it covers and 1,289 documented sites around it; 4 are borrowed from a wider read, named and linked below.
Measured here
- Lookout Mountain's own USDA hardiness band, zones 7bUSDA PHZM 2023
- Lookout Mountain's own 28°F hard-freeze dates, about Mar 16 and Nov 19 and the ~248-day span between themNOAA 1991–2020 Climate Normals
- 1,289 documented contamination sites on the federal record near Lookout Mountain, the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile out from the town centreFederal environmental registers
- Lookout Mountain's boundary and the 860 acres inside itUS Census TIGER/Line 2025
- Which of 1,086 plants clear zones 7b and a ~248-day seasonGrowable Ground crop-matching engine
- Lookout Mountain sits in the Southwestern Appalachians — not the ecoregion its county mostly readsUS EPA Level III Ecoregions
- Lanternfly survey cells around Lookout Mountain 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 Lookout Mountain's 860 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 Lookout Mountain's 860 acreswhy one lot differs from the next →
- Which side of Lookout Mountain you're on — a low spot frosts first and a south wall warms early, and one normal is being asked to speak for all 860 acresreading your own microclimate →
- How close that record sits to YOUR lot — the closest Underground Storage Tanks record under a tenth of a mile 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 Lookout Mountain-wide figureread your own land →
More in Tennessee
Growing region
Nearby growing guides